Saffron party goes green

BJP to set up eco-friendly camp for national council meet

His idea to hold the party’s national council meeting in tents raised many eyebrows within the BJP. Here comes another novel idea from BJP president Nitin Gadkari — an eco-friendly camp for the meeting venue.

Gadkari, whose election as BJP president would be ratified in the meeting at Indore between February 17 and 19, had suggested this eco-friendly theme to the organsiers.

Plastic would be completely banned at the meeting venue — named after former president Kushabhau Thackeray — and handmade products, recycled papers, jute bags and other eco-friendly articles would be used. Smoking would obviously be not allowed inside the meeting venue and the camp would have wireless Internet and telephone connectivity.

“We are also making arrangements for bio-diesel and battery operated vehicles to ferry leaders from one point to the other at the meeting venue. Bicycles would also be made available to those who would prefer to work out a little bit,” Madhya Pradesh’s Commerce & Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya told The Pioneer here on Wednesday.

Vijayvargiya, an MLA from Malwa region who is taking care of the entire arrangements for the meeting, said more than 2,000 tents would be erected on over 90 acres of land on the outskirts of the city. “There would be three categories of tents for party leaders,” he added.

There are about 90 apartments constructed on the piece of land, which is developed by a private real estate company, and organisers have suggested the party president that women should be allowed to stay in those apartments instead of tents.

According to a rough estimate, anything between Rs 2 lakh and 2.5 lakh would be spent on erecting a tent for senior leaders of the party, including LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu and others.

Organisers rubbished the rumours that tents for seniors would be “luxurious” and top leaders would be accommodated in hotels.

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