Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party's Punjab candidate Balbir Singh Seechewal was sworn in as a Rajya Sabha member on Saturday. After taking the oath of office and secrecy, Seechewal said, "I will keep on highlighting issues related to Punjab in the House." Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in his Tweet congratulated environmentalist and Padma Shri Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal for becoming a Rajya Sabha member on behalf of the people of Punjab. "Surely, I can say that Sant Ji will be the voice of Punjab-Punjabis on important issues, including environment," Mann tweeted. Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, a renowned environmentalist, was born on February 2, 1962. His love for ecology could be gauged from the fact that by setting a precedent he cleaned a 110-km-long Kali Bein river. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Centre for spearheading environmental issues.
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The Kali Bein river has huge importance in Sikhism. The river branches out from the Beas river in the Mukerian area of Hoshiarpur and again rejoins the Beas river after covering a distance of about 110 km. The river flows through the Sultanpur area of Kapurthala where Guru Nanak, the first Guru of Sikhs, spent more than 14 years of his life. During that period Guru Nanak Dev used to take a holy bath in the Kali Bein river every morning and there he composed the original mantra for the Sikh religion. Balbir Singh Seechewal, a resident of Seechewal village near Sultanpur Lodhi, where he has his own Dera, took up the vow of cleaning the river.
