Ranchi, Sep 30 (IANS): President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday appealed to the youth here to stay away from the impact of e-cigarettes.

"Youths are falling victim to e-cigarettes. The Central government has banned it this month. Sixteen states and one Union Territory has banned e-cigarettes, while the Jharkhand government had already banned it since April. E-cigarette is harmful to health. Hope youths will not come under it's influence" said the President while addressing the Ranchi University convocation.

"Jharkhand is a place of human resources. It is the birth place of Jaipal Singh Munda, captain of hockey team which won gold in the 1928 Olympics, archer Deepika Kumari, Param Vir Chakra awardee late Albert Ekka, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and others."

The President also congratulated the girl students for receiving maximum number of gold medals in the convocation. "Of the 56 gold medal winners, 47 are girls. It is five times more than boys."

He urged the youths to take inspiration from Vikas Bharti, a voluntary organisation which is working in tribal areas for their development and is also active with the Ramakrishna Mission in the state.

"We should learn how to strike balance with nature from tribal people."

The President also lauded Jharkhand for its commendable job in making the state 100 per cent open defecation free (ODF) in the last five years. "In 2014 as I have been informed the state was 16 per cent ODF, and in 2019, the state has achieved 100 per cent ODF," he said.

He also asked the Ranchi University administration to adopt University Social Responsibility (USR) in line of CSR. "In the 2018 governors meet, I had appealed to adopt USR. Under USR five students of each college should visit a village and inform them about government schemes and other things," he said.

The President also lamented the traffic disruption during his visit to the state.

"Through media I regret the traffic problem faced by the people. I do not move in any town without reason" said Kovind.