MP youth who cleaned garbage-filled river responds to Dhruv Rathee’s ‘PR’ remark
Surendra Singh Choudhary, a student who independently cleaned the polluted Ajnar River, has defended his efforts against claims that the government is using his work for PR. He maintains that his actions were motivated by civic duty rather than political credit.
Why it matters
The story highlights the tension between grassroots environmental activism and the political appropriation of such efforts.
Surendra Singh Choudhary, aka Bittu Tabahi, did something unthinkable and became a national hero. The 21-year old, a BSc student from Biaora in Madhya Pradesh, himself stepped into the polluted Ajnar River and started the cleaning work. The river was from heavy pollution and was full of plastic bottles, weeds and other waste. Bittu pulled out all the garbage with his own hands, without any help from a large clean-up team or heavy machinery. Online, he got the name ‘Bittu Tabahi’ for his remarkable work.His efforts eventually took him from the banks of a garbage-filled river to a meeting with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav in Bhopal.
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