“My responsibility towards the society has increased manifold”, said Baba when asked how did he feel after being short listed for Padma Shri
Organiser Bureau
The Baba has been honoured for social service and his pioneering work in rejuvenating the 165-km-long rivulet, Kali Bein, which was “reduced to a filthy drain” due to the discharge of industrial waste and sewer from more than two dozen villages. The rivulet, with immense religious significance, originates in Hoshiarpur and traverses the Doaba region to join the Sutlej-Beas confluence near Harike wetland in Ferozepur. His message “Pawan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dhart Mahat” (Air is guru, water is father, the great earth is mother) is what he intones whenever surrounded by followers. A “karam yogi” saint, he has been in the limelight ever since the Time magazine placed him among the 30 top environmentalists in the world.
Taking a cue from him, Union Water Resources minister Uma Bharti announced that Seechewal’s model of cleaning water bodies, successfully employed in Punjab, would be adopted in more than 1,600 villages situated on the banks of Ganga for the river’s rejuvenation.
Seechewal said sarpanches of 1,657 villages located near Ganga in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand had seen the effectiveness of the model and were impressed by it. “Under Seechewal model, sewage passes through different wells for removing impurity, and then the water is shifted to a pond for irrigating crops.
Impressed by his work, former President APJ Abdul Kalam visited his place in Kapurthala district in Punjab to take a view of immensity of task undertaken by Baba Seechewal.
Key Contribution : ?Pioneering work in rejuvenating the 165-km-long rivulet, Kali Bein
