Going green helps
What do Digvijay Singh, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kumar Chamling have in common? A simple answer would be that they are all chief ministers. But they have more in common than just that. Some time back, in February to be precise, we put all three on the cover of Down To Earth . These three, we felt, were a new breed of Indian politicians who were concerned about the environment. They also felt that taking care of the environment would help them improve the lot of their people and earn them good dividend in the form of votes.
Down To Earth arrived at these names after an extensive survey of environmentalists, readers of the magazine and organisations working in several states. By then Digvijay Singh had already proved that he could beat the anti-incumbency factor. A team of reporters who went to Madhya Pradesh found that this was due to the impact of Digvijay's grassroots programmes and his passing on power to the people to take care of their local resources. In some cases, the state government even bypassed the panchayats and went directly with funds to more transparent people's institutions like g ram sabhas .
Today, Chamling, who was ranked as the greenest chief minister ( cm) in India by the respondents to the survey, and Naidu, who was ranked very high by the readers of the magazine, have also vindicated themselves. Naidu won even though certain poll pundits had forecast that he may not be able to do so. Chamling, on the other hand, has almost swept the polls. Out of 32 members in the legislative assembly he romped home with 24. An impressive victory indeed.
Naidu has initiated two major programmes
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