Seechewal pitches tent to clean Buddha Nullah

Environmentalist-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal on Saturday pitched a tent in Ludhiana with a resolve to free the Buddha Nullah of the widespread pollution.

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Launching a strong front to clean one of the most polluted Sutlej tributaries, which passes through Ludhiana and joins the river before entering Rajasthan, Seechewal cancelled his scheduled foreign trip to kick-start a kar sewa to clean and preserve the Buddha Nullah on the lines what he had done with the Kali Bein, a rivulet that flows into the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej at Harike.

He appealed to the people of the state, especially Ludhiana, to join hands and cooperate in the kar sewa to again turn the nullah into a clean and pristine Buddha Dariya.

Exhorting every Punjabi to make cleaning the Sutlej tributary his or her moral duty, he said like Baba Nanak’s Kali Bein, the history of the Buddha Nullah was also associated with Guru Nanak Dev. “The historic Gurdwara Gaughat is an eyewitness to it,” he recalled.

“The nullah is one of the most polluted Sutlej tributaries. Every Punjabi is worried about the water body. Though many previous state governments and the Punjab Pollution Control Board had tried to stop the poisonous water flowing into the nullah, none succeeded. Now that the kar sewa has started to clean the waterbody, the initial response received from dairies and industries is an auspicious sign as most of the dairy and factory owners have assured to support the same,” he said.

He said the rivers of the state were the real heritage of Punjabis and it was the joint responsibility of all residents to maintain it. — TNS