CHANDIGARH: The Ganga may not be flowing through Punjab, but the state certainly has its share in cleaning up the holy river. The Ministry of Water Resources has decided to take a leaf out of environment activist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal’s book. Seechewal had hogged the limelight by cleaning up the Kali Bein, a rivulet of the river Beas.
Not just that. Seechewal has also been named as the brand ambassador of Swachh Bharat Mission. And now, with Union minister Uma Bharti making it clear that the Centre would keep the Kali Bein as a model for the Ganga clean-up project, the representatives and the sarpanches from 19 villages of Uttar Pradesh are in Sultanpur Lodhi to take lessons from Seechewal.
The representatives from Bijnor, Hapur, Bulandshahr and Farrukabad districts are in the Punjab village to learn the techniques of how to clean up the river. Facilitated by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), the representatives will also be visiting the sewerage treatment plant at Sultanpur Lodhi.
Recently, Seechewal and the Punjab Pollution Control Board received a letter from the Union ministry in this regard. In an ongoing process, representatives of 1,610 villages and 118 towns located in the banks of the Ganga will be sent to Sultanpur Lodhi for training. They will be taught on how to utilise sewerage water for irrigation purpose.
Interacting with The Sunday Standard, Seechewal admitted that he is ready to actively participate in the Clean Ganga project if the Union ministry wants. “I can go and participate in the campaign, and can also guide the people on how to go about it. The Union government has requested me to teach and train the village volunteers from UP. It is not difficult to clean a dirty river, it’s just that one needs the effort and public participation,” he said.
During her visit to the village last month, Bharti met Seechewal and even referred to the Kali Bein project as the ‘guru sthan’ (place of guidance) for the Ganga clean-up project. It was only after her visit that the villagers of UP were asked to visit the Punjab village, and take classes from Seechewal, who also features in the Time magazine’s list of 30 environment heroes from around the world.