Under the ‘Atal Bijali Bachat Yojna’, with a budget of 80 crores, the state government plans to provide our CFL bulbs free of cost to all the 16 lac families in Himachal Pradesh in order to reduce the domestic consumption of electricity. The announcement was done by J.P. Nadda, Forest, Environment, Science and Technology Minister.
He further announced that the government has already started taking remedial measures to check over the degradable and bio degradable waste. Expressing concern over the global warming he said that massive afforestation drive is being conducted. He said that there was a need to focus on data collection, survey reports and observations to the grass root level with regard to the protection the environment. Also, under the Town Country Planning Act, a provision to ensure water harvesting designs and technology has been made mandatory in Himachal Pradesh.
I would like to thank the Himachal Government for taking such a big positive step towards protecting mother nature and its resources. I am a Tibetan living in Dharamsala and I am very concerned about the environment. We have been working towards educating and introducing the environmental issues and extravagant resource consumption to as many people as we can. I wish you all the very best in implementing this great plan. Bravo! Hats off to you all and Thank You once again.
Tashi Lhamo.
This a great way of reducing energy consumption in the State especially in far flung regions such as Spiti where electricity supply is intermittent.
However CFL does contain a small amount of mercury in it and i think the government really needs to look into the appropriate disposal or re-cycling of these bulbs before they provide it en-mass to the public who are largely unaware of its mercury and toxic contents.
For more information on CFL and mercury one can refer to the links below
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/157/1/CFL-disposal-and-recycling.html
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf