Stubble burning in political crossfire
PATIALA: There’s politics behind the smog. The paddy crop, alien to Punjab before the Green Revolution, has become a political problem today. The disposal of its residue or stubble by burning to clear fields for the next crop is a major reason for the toxic haze hanging over the region for the past three days. While Punjab and Haryana governments have drawn flak from National Green Tribunal for failing to enforce the ban on stubble burning, it’s clear that the leaders of both states lack political will to tackle the problem.
The PPCB started its muchpublicised drive against crop residue burning in right earnest as soon as harvesting started in September-end. But on October 8, 10 days before Diwali, the campaign came a cropper with political leaders, including CM Capt Amarinder Singh, assuring farmers that no case would be registered against defaulters.
Ironically, while AAP convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has sought a meeting with his Punjab and Haryana counterparts to discuss the problem, his party’s Punjab unit leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira himself burnt paddy straw in Ludhiana to support the farmers.
The reason for this doublespeak on paddy straw burning is simple: Farmers constitute an influential votebank in both Punjab and Haryana, and no party wants to offend them.
Despite the tough talk on the issue both state governments have soft-pedalled on enforcement of the ban on the ground. Illustrating the lax implementation is the fact that in Punjab only 53 FIRs were registered till October 21 this year against 255 cases last year. The story is no different in Haryana where 1,138 cases of stubble burning have been registered so far this year as against 1,800 in the last paddy harvest season.
In Punjab, the official data says 38,016 cases of stubble burning
were reported this year, 19,000 less than last year. A spike in the number of paddy stubble burning cases was noticed after Captain said on October 8 that the “government won’t take punitive action against farmers”.
PPCB chairman Kahan Singh Pannu insists that farmers stubble burning has receded this year.
Then why does the smog hang thick over the region? PPCB engineer Pawan Garg says, “The early onset of winter has led to a drop in temperature and so the smog is not clearing. Only rain or high speed wind can clear it.”