Centre gives states 10 days to tackle stubble burning

Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan has asked Delhi’s neighbouring states — Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — to ensure that farm equipment being distributed to tackle stubble burning should be made available to farmers in the next 10 days in order to prevent stubble burning this paddy harvest season.

Vardhan was chairing a meeting to review the preparedness of NCR states in preventing a spike in pollution during winter.

“Centre has provided all possible assistance including grant of ₹1,150 crore from centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) to tackle stubble burning to the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and also provided financial assistance under the urban development fund (UDF) to Delhi for procurement of mechanical road sweeping machines, water sprinklers and greening,” the ministry said.

The state governments are giving subsidies to farm cooperatives, which then procure the equipment and rent it out.

The meeting reviewed steps taken to address air pollution during winter in Delhi-NCR. According to the central government, the combined total of ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’ and ‘moderate’ days increased from 144 in 2017 to 149 in 2018. While the number of ‘poor’, ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ days decreased from 125 in 2017 to 120 in 2018 till date.

Vardhan said Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has deployed 41 teams in Delhi-NCR for ground-level inspection of pollution sources.