As paddy harvesting begins, 60 cases of stubble burning spotted

CHANDIGARH: Even as paddy harvesting began around a week ago, over 60 cases of stubble burning have already been spotted in different districts of Haryana.

The paddy harvesting starts in the first week of October and goes on till mid-november in the state. The incidence of farm stubble burning snowballs drastically in the coming days, which in turn, triggers heavy pollution in the national capital region (NCR).THE primary reasons behind farmers setting crop residue afire are said to be the cost concerns and the shorttime gap between summer and winter crops.

The Haryana Pollution Control Board (HPCB) has once again asked the Haryana Space Application Centre (Harsac), set up at Haryana agricultural university (HAU), Hisar for daily reports through satellite which has spotted over 60 cases of farm fires till date - over 12 cases rach in Karnal and Kurukshetra, and five in Panipat.

Officials in the agriculture and environment departments say they have taken a serious view of this trend. “We are giving various incentives to stop it as well as fining the offenders,” agriculture department director DK Behera says.

HPCB member secretary S Narayanan told HT that district-level officials were checking the incidents of stubble burning as well as disseminating information about its ill-effects.

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“The Centre’s environment department is also holding a meeting with the officials concerned from Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on Thursday following which we would again strategise our efforts,” he added.

Among the new steps to be taken by the government this year would be the arrangements to use crop stubble as fodder for gaushalas (cattle pounds), incentive of Rs 50,000 to a gram panchayat each which would collectively check it, customhiring centres on public-private partnership (PPP) mode in the said 10 paddy growing districts.

“There seem to be many takers for it (custom-hiring centres), though the exact number of the applicants would be known by October 18, the last date to apply,” he said.

Last year, the state government registered as many as 1,797 cases and recovered an aggregate fine of Rs 19.38 lakh.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Kisan Union Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and the principal opposition party in Haryana, has condemned the government for fining farmers, who were already going through a financial crisis.

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