A Cop's Crusade Against Stubble Burning
“As a police officer, I don’t always have to carry a gun. Sometimes a branch with green leaves is all I need to do my bit for the people,” Prashanth Reddy said.
Hyderabad: The battle against stubble burning in Telangana has found an unexpected ally.
For Kazipet assistant commissioner of police Pingli Prashant Reddy, “work is not just duties related to law and order. It is also about helping people live better, and protecting the environment.”
Every day, during his rounds, or while on other assignments, this police officer says he finds time to stop when he sees smoke from the fields. “The first time was during the recent gram panchayat elections when I was in Veluru mandal in Hanamkonda district. I saw this huge smoke coming from the fields, and went to check and found a farmer burning all the leftover growth in his field. I got down from my vehicle and along with my colleagues, picked up fresh branches from nearby trees and beat the fire down,” he said.
Not stopping there, he spoke with the farmer how the fire was also killing the field, how he will have to spend more on fertilizer for the next crop, and left only after the farmer took an oath he will not set fire to the stubble again.
“I try to create some positive impact during my after work hours, talk to people in villages on important things in life. Now, stubble burning has been added to the topics,” he told Deccan Chronicle, minutes after putting out another farm fire late on Monday afternoon in Gudur in Kamalapur mandal.
Prashant Reddy said he has now taken up his drive to discourage farmers from stubble burning on a mission mode. He has organized one grama sabha on this issue so far, at Ganturpally village.
“I am going to hold more such meetings with villagers. Otherwise, we will not succeed. If this has to stop, everyone much pitch in, be it officials irrespective of departments, and politicians. Unless this becomes a movement, villages will continue to get engulfed in smoke clouds and farmers will have to spend more and more every crop season,” Prashant Reddy said.
“As a police officer, I don’t always have to carry a gun. Sometimes a branch with green leaves is all I need to do my bit for the people,” he said.