In Haryana, reported cases go down at outset of harvesting

: There has been a decrease in the incidence of stubble burning in Haryana at the outset of paddy harvesting season as compared to the corresponding period last year, officials of the departments of environment and agriculture claimed.

Paddy harvesting will go on till mid-November.

Senior officials said 437 incidents of stubble burning have been reported till date and 132 police cases have been registered in this regard.

Last year, of the 1,787 reported cases, nearly half were reported till October 12 even as no police cases were registered against the offenders. ₹19.38 lakh fine was recovered last time.

Of Haryana’s 22 districts, Ambala, Fatehabad, Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Sonepat and Yamunanaga are considered major paddy-growing areas. Officials said of the 157 cases reported in Karnal, 118 police cases were registered, followed by Kurukshetra where 140 cases were reported with no FIR.

Likewise, in Kaithal, 66 cases were reported with no police case while in Sonepat 19 cases of stubble burning were reported for which 14 police cases have been registered. Fine worth over ₹4.10 lakh has been imposed on the offenders, officials said.

Officials cite awareness among farmers and departmental intervention as two major main reasons behind this.

Haryana Pollution Control Board member secretary S Narayanan and agriculture department joint director RS Chahal said there was also a substantial departmental intervention by way of holding meetings and kisan melas on stubble management in villages.

While ₹50,000 would be given to each village panchayat to check stubble burning, centres under public-private partnership (PPP) mode have been set up in 10 districts to rent out machines for straw management, Chahal said.

Angry over the government action, farmers are also holding protests in different parts of the state, especially Karnal, Kurukshetra and Sirsa.