NGO takes musical route to curb burning of crop residue

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, October 21

Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), an NGO, which is working to promote organic farming for years, has adopted a musical medium to reach out to farmers and to give them a message of not to burn paddy straw.

‘Pal Pal sadan main insaan karke, har saal agg laave haivaan ban ke’, ‘main tan ann ennu ditta, ehne dukh ditta bhara’, this is the starting line of a song which has just got released by it. A total of three such songs have got released till now and are being forwarded in groups to spread a message among farmers to not to burn paddy stubble.

Titles of the songs clearly suggest that the farmers of the state who burn stubble are being given a clear-cut message that if they burn the same, its consequences will be faced by everyone.

‘Dharti di hik na saado’, ‘phooko na paraliya’, rab da waasta kade na saado, kheta vich parali nu’ these are some of the other Punjabi songs that have got released by the NGO.

As per information, soon, a Hindi song will also be released. Jagtar Singh Sahota from Faridkot, who has written the song ‘Pal Pal sadan main insaan karke’, said Umendra Dutt, executive director of the NGO, had floated the idea that songs must be made on the important and sensitive issue.

“I am into writing for long. Since my schooldays, I have been writing on several problems prevailing in the state, but in this song, I made sure that I covered every topic which is troubling our mother earth,” he said.

Sahota said it took some days to write the song as he had raised issues such as deforestation, stubble burning and indifferent attitude of human beings towards the planet in the number.

Another writer Gurdev Singh Saini, who has written ‘Phooko na paraliya’, is a retired government officer. After retirement, he indulged into farming and came in contact with the Kheti Virasat Mission.

“It took me two days to write the song,” he said.

The lyrics of the song goes like ‘Dharti pukaare peeda jaan na sambhaliya’. The song gives a message that when the stubble is burnt worms that are good for farming also gets affected.

The songs are being shared online and in groups with an aim to spreading awareness among everyone.