Environmentalist gets Rahul’s green signal

“I got to know that the ticket has been given to me when people congratulated me on Wednesday. I don’t know much about politics,I have been working on issues affecting people of my region,” he told The Indian Express on Thursday.

Rahul was touring eastern UP when,on July 21,he crossed the Ami river by boat to reach Katka village of Sahjanwa Nagar panchayat. The villagers told him how industrial pollution in the river was harming crops,their cattle and causing illness among children.

Singh informed him about his campaign to save the river and the livelihood of the people of about 250 villages along the river in Gorakhpur,Basti and Siddharthnagar districts.

Rahul listened to him carefully. “I noticed a change of expression on his face when I told him that I had been president of the students’ union of Gorakhpur University. He said there was a need for those involved in people’s campaigns at the grassroots to join politics,” Singh recalled but did not read much into it.

Three months back when the Congress office in Lucknow asked for his CV,Singh never thought this would lead to his selection as an election candidate over senior leaders.

A masters in military sciences,Singh earns his living by farming the family land at Hariharpur village in Khajani tehsil. His family includes his wife and two minor children.

He said despite his selection,the ‘Ami Bachao Andolan’ would continue.

“There are some industrial units under the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority which never bothered to build treatment plants and discharged their waste into the river. Over the years,the condition has become so bad that handpumps in the villages are giving polluted water,” said Singh.