Farm fires rage on in Punjab despite efforts

LUDHIANA/CHANDIGARH: Despite efforts by Punjab to curb paddy stubble burning, farm fires have not abated. Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) reported about 27 cases of stubble burning on Monday, taking the total count of such incidents to 258 this year.

This is equal to cases reported last year during the same period.

The PRSC remote sensing centre had started monitoring cases of stubble burning from September 23.

As many as 610 farm fires were witnessed from the beginning of the season till October 7, in 2017, while in 2018 as well as 2019, in the same period, 258 farm fire cases were reported.

Data shows that on a single day, 90 stubble burning incidents were reported on October 7, 2017, while 119 cases were reported on October 7 in 2018.

This year, only 27 cases were reported on Monday, October 7.

Of the 258 cases, maximum farm fires were reported from the Majha area.

The Punjab government said on Monday it will depute top officers of the state heading different departments, as incharge of the districts in the state to monitor activities related to coordination and curbing of paddy residue burning during the ongoing kharif harvest season, it said on Monday.

These officers include additional chief secretaries (ACS) and principal secretaries. The ACS rank officers are Vini Mahajan, Viswajeet Khannna, Ravneet Kaur and Sanjay Kumar who are incharge of Ludhiana, Sangrur, Nawanshahr and Mansa districts.

The Union cabinet secretary is monitoring the situation daily. Last week, he connected to Punjab and Haryana officials via video conference, asking them to keep a close watch.

A state government official said the PMO is also monitoring the situation.