Ahead of Shahkot bypoll, Seechewal village shows a resolve: Won’t vote for money or caste, ensure no pollution in river

People of this village has adopted this way in a bid to sensitized the political parties on ‘environmental’ issues particularly towards the contaminated water sources of the state.

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba

Jalandhar | May 20, 2018 12:54 AM IST

3 min read

Posters outside the houses in Seechewal. (Express Photo)

Ahead of the Shahkot bypoll, posters seeking replies from leaders have been pasted outside several houses in Seechewal village under the Shahkot Assembly segment. The bypoll is scheduled to be held on May 28. The posters written in Punjabi, reads,”This house has four votes (or whatever the number of votes in that house), and we will caste our votes only in favour of that candidate or party who will answer the question and resolve the problem. We will not caste our vote in lieu of money, drugs, under fear. Our only demand is to stop releasing the dirty water into the Bein (a 165 km long rivulet of Beas river), and our vote is only for those who will solve this problem of contaminating the natural water sources”. The poster is undersigned by the head of the family.

People of this village has adopted this way in a bid to sensitized the political parties on ‘environmental’ issues particularly towards the contaminated water sources of the state. The move has been made so that the environmental issue can be dealt on a priority basis.

Rajwant Kaur, the sarpanch of the village, said that they have been taking up this issue since long and appealing the successive government to stop the release of dirty water into the natural water sources, but the ruling parties have no political will to protect the natural water sources which are being contamination. “Our appeals are felling in deaf years since long and now we have decided that we will only vote for those who will fulfil this demand,” she said.

Environmentalist Padma Shri awardee Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, who also hails from this village and who has been regularly cleaning the highly contaminated 165 km long ‘Bein’ with the help of his followers for last two decades without any government support, said that he being the member of Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had taken up the issue of increasing pollution in the state rivers before the PPCB, District authorities as well as upto the chief minister’s office, but the efforts went in vain as no one seems serious about keeping the natural water sources clean.

“Government should see that how sewer and industry waste can be managed as dumping them into the rivers is a big crime towards the human being, environment and even the aqua life,” he said, adding, “If our issue is not resolved, no one has right to ask for our votes.”

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