196 Punjab farmers held for farm fires
BATHINDA/LUDHIANA/PATIALA:A day after the Supreme Court rebuked it for failing to stop stubble burning, the Punjab government on Tuesday arrested at least 196 farmers for violating a ban on farm fires and registered 327 FIRs even as 6,668 farm fires – the highest in a single day this post-harvest season – were reported from across the breadbasket state.
The farmers were arrested under Section 188 (disobeying an order promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, a bailable offence, as they flouted the ban issued by district authorities on burning of crop residue.
The bulk of the arrests were made in the southern Punjab region of Malwa, which is primarily responsible for the spurt in farm fires in the past three days. Malwa, which neighbours Sirsa and Fatehabad districts of Haryana, is the main paddy growing region of the state and the farmers are in a hurry to clear
their farmland for wheat sowing expected to start on November 15.
Of the 101 farmers arrested in south Malwa, 74 belonged to Moga followed by 14 in Mansa, eight in Muktsar and five in Bathinda, according to the police officers in these districts.
In addition, 167 FIRs were filed against farmers in seven districts in the region, the officers said.
In a bid to deter farmers from burning paddy straw, the authorities made red entries in the revenue record of at least 850 farmers, 704 of them in Sangrur alone, to deprive them of benefits under government’s welfare schemes.
While the Centre had specifically identified Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda and Tarn Taran districts for continued stubble burning, the state machinery intensified action after SC direction to put an end to farm fires.
The crackdown was ordered as the SC summoned the chief secretaries of Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday.
The government action had little impact. Farmers lit 6,668 fires to burn stubble on Tuesday, according to the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), which based its estimate on satellite images. On Monday, Punjab had reported 5,953 farm fires.
With this, PAU officials said the total count of farm fires had shot up to 37,937,compared to 27,224 cases of stubble burning beginning September end until November 5 last year.
The arrests and punitive action upset farmers’ unions. In Muktsar, farmers took out a march under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and burned paddy stubble in protest. They also announced a gherao of district officials.
BKU (Ugrahan) general secretary Ghurbhagat Singh: “The farmers are already facing a financial crisis. They are forced to burn stubble... We will intensify our agitation...”