Haryana sees significant decline in stubble burning incidents, says govt
KARNAL: Haryana chief secretary DS Dhesi has said that blaming the state for poor air quality in Delhi is not justified as Haryana has reported a considerable fall in stubble burning cases this year.
“The number of incidents of burning of crop waste has come down to 4,844 this year against 12,473 incidents of last year, but still there are media reports that farm fires in Haryana and Punjab are causing pollution in Delhi,” Dhesi said while talking to mediapersons in Kurukshetra on Friday. “How burning of crop waste in Haryana is responsible for the pollution in Delhi as the air quality in major paddy producing districts of Karnal, Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts, is much better than Delhi”, he said.
The CS said if the crop waste was being burnt in Haryana, how the air quality in the state was not affected.
“Even the study of IIT Kanpur has suggested construction dust, emission from vehicles and garbage burning as the key reasons behind the poor air quality in Delhi and burning of crop waste was the last reason,” he added.
The chief secretary said he has already shared the figures of fall in the stubble burning cases in the state with the Centre.
He said that out of 13 lakh hectare under paddy in the state, the crop is already harvested over nearly 11.75 lakh hectare and the crop waste was burnt on nearly 10,000 hectare, which is below 1% of total acreage under the crop in the state. “We can say that only 2% farmers have burnt the crop waste in the state, which is a big achievement of the government,” he added. “Even a study of IIT Kanpur suggests construction dust, emission from vehicles and garbage burning as the key reasons behind the poor air quality in Delhi and burning of crop waste was last reason,” he added.
The media should also highlight the efforts of the government and farmers, who did not burn the crop waste and managed the crop waste without burning it, he added.He said the state government has given subsidy of Rs 137 crore to farmers in the state and 857 custom-hiring centres have set up to provide implements to farmers on cheaper rates and there were hundreds of villages in the state, where not even a single case of stubble burning was reported.
BLAMING THE STATE FOR DELHI’S POOR AIR QUALITY IS WRONG, SAYS CHIEF SECRETARY