Green tribunal tells Centre, Punjab, Haryana to ensure periodic reviews

NEW DELHI : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Union agriculture ministry and the Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi chief secretaries to periodically review steps taken to stop stubble burning incidents.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said there was a need to adopt a multi-method approach through in situ and ex-situ management of crop residue to minimise stubble burning incidents.

The green panel directed the states to compile data on instances of stubble burning “appropriately through revenue records” and asked the Centre so that they can be utilised by the states.

It directed the Union agriculture ministry to furnish a status report to the tribunal on or before April 30, 2019, and said it would consider it on May 9.

The tribunal was also informed that the Centre has released Rs 577.11 crore under the Crop Residue Management Scheme, out of which Rs 328.01 crore has been spent on procurement of machinery due to which crop burning incidents have reduced to 12.39%.

“Fire incidents have mainly taken place from 1st November to 12th November. The statistics show that in the State of Punjab fire incidents this year are more than the fire incidents in the last year during the November 1 to number of incidents are less than last year,” the bench noted.

The tribunal was informed that the Centre has initiated awareness programmes through ‘Krishi Vikas Kendras’ and the Punjab government has introduced a lesson on stubble burning awareness in the education curriculum.

“Youth clubs have also been involved. Rallies of school children have also been promoted by the government of India. In Delhi, farmers have been trained on the subject. In the State of Haryana, similar awareness programmes have been undertaken and farmers have also been trained which has also been done in Uttar Pradesh,” the bench noted.

The NGT was also informed Policy, 2018, was notified on March 9 to provide for bio-based power projects in the state.

It noted that live demonstrations of in-situ crop residue management have been given to villages and crop burning is monitored through satellite.

“Monitoring is also done at the chief secretary level regularly through field visits and video conferencing and a statelevel monitoring committee has been constituted to prevent crop residue burning.

The tribunal had earlier directed the secretary of the ministry of agriculture to submit a status report within six weeks on providing infrastructural assistance to farmers to stop them from burning crop residue to prevent air