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TIME mag’s Hero
Seechewal now broadens agenda to
fight real & bigger war
WSN Bureau
 New York: Hailed
by the Time magazine of the
US
as one of the 30 "Heroes of Environment", Sant Baba balbir Singh
Seechewal known for his revolutionary work in saving the Kali Bein
is now planning to broadbase his agenda for larger ecological fights
and fight for an alternative development model.
In an interview
with the World Sikh News in
Chandigarh on
Tuesday, Baba Seechewal said cleansing the Kali Bein and fighting
against the chemical and industrial discharges from countless
factories in many areas of Punjab was just the beginning.
He said the
larger ecological fights have to be fought as part of the war
against the capital-intensive model of growth and Gurbani preaches
many non-economic paths of progress.
Baba Seechewal,
who was in Chandigarh for a TV interview and left India for Britain
on Wednesday for a 5 day tour said his fight is for the people but
mostly he finds himself fighting not just the polluters but even the
government. So much so that many a times the fights have even seen
the SGPC on the other side, he said.
Baba Seechewal
said the people must be made aware about the dangerous clauses of
the so-called National Water Policy of 2002. which he termed as
seriously flawed. "These people are planning to sell water to the
poor who cannot buy milk for their little children," he said. He
said he was against continued government control over water
resources, and advocated involving local communities in managing
these.
What have the
water policies so far done for us, he asked, adding that
India
has seen successive droughts and growing water scarcity. All this
was creation of government policy and the new policy will only
perpetuate the disastrous policy framework of the past.
He decried the
tendency of keeping people out of the decisions that directly affect
their lives and the environment. "There is just one small matter of
detail that we often forget. This is the only planet we have got to
live, so please don't think that we have a choice," the great man
told the WSN.
He said as more
and more water is pumped out of the ground, there has been a
dramatic lowering of the water table across the country. Groundwater
in states that have taken to intensive agriculture under the
so-called Green Revolution of the 70s are now turning brackish or
are ridden with fluorides or arsenic. By 1991 a review of the
irrigation sector by the World Bank showed that one of the world's
largest irrigation investments was performing unevenly and far below
potential, mainly because the focus was on construction of new
projects rather than management of existing ones.
8 October 2008
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