On September 21, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Officials of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, on the Car-Free Day, September 22, will leave their personal vehicles in parking lots and maximally limit the use of official cars, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the Administrator of Affairs of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Aleksei Matyushko. In the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, employees are also recommended to use public transport instead of personal cars. On Car-Free Day, raids will be conducted in the Vitebsk region to identify and prevent vehicles from participating in traffic if the content of toxic substances in their exhaust emissions exceeds the established standards. Unattended vehicles will not be overlooked by the State Automobile Inspectorate: they will be identified in parking lots and courtyards, and then this information will be transferred to the local authorities. In 2010, the Vitebsk region had almost 366 thousand units of vehicles, of which the personal car fleet comprised 250 thousand. According to ecologists' estimates, this number of vehicles emitted 117.9 thousand tons of pollutants into the atmosphere. The "Car-Free Day" campaign was first held in France in 1997. At that time, only about 20 cities participated in the event; in 2001, over a thousand cities from 35 countries officially joined the movement, and Belarus became a participant in 2008. Now, the annual campaign is held in 40 countries in Europe and other continents. On September 22, 2011, Belarus is holding the annual international campaign "Car-Free Day," organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, regional committees, and district and city inspectorates of natural resources and environmental protection. -0-

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