Govt, opposition trade barbs over paddy stubble burning
CHANDIGARH: Leaders of the principal opposition party Indian National LokD al( IN L D) and the treasury benches on Monday traded barbs over the issue of stubble burning on opening day of the Ha ryan a assembly session.
Speaking on the calling attention motion on the issue by some INLD ML As, leader of opposition Abhay Chautala said it was shocking that the ruling B JP was hitting the farmers who were already facing several hard ships. Other party MLAs, including Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, Ramch and Kam boj and Balwan Singh Daulatpuria, also spoke on the issue and termed the government’s efforts as “too little” and its action as anti-farmers.
“It is shocking that the government is fining the poor farmers and lodging criminal cases against them for burning paddy stubble. The government has now threatened to suspend panches and sarpanches if stubble burning is reported in their villages. Would you remove the chief minister if there is some irregularity in some department ?” Abhay said.
He reacted sharply to BJP’s Sohana MLAT ejp al Ta war when he asked the former that if previous government soft he Congress or INLDh add one anything close to what ruling BJP government was doing .“Aapnek ab hik he ti ki hai?, Aapnekabh id ha an bijahai ,” he questioned Tawar if he had any experience of farming.
On this, agriculture minister D hank art old Ab hay that it was a serious issue concerning farmers and it was expected of him that the opposition did some constructive criticism instead of settling political scores. Though D hank ar gave a detailed reply on the motion, Abhay termed as “a mere lecture’’.
Heated arguments went on for some time as the treasury
benches said the politics of lies was over and the BJP was doing politics based on issues and facts.
Stating that coordinated efforts were being made by the agriculture department, environment department and new and renewable energy department (HAREDA) to solve the problem, D hank ar said 944 straw management implements had already been distributed to the farmers as on October 16.
“A total of 18,000 hectares of land would be covered for demonstration of crop residue manage-
ment covering 15 major paddygrowing districts for practical knowledge of the farmers for which ₹7.2 crore would be spent during this crop harvesting season,” Dhankar said.
“Presently, a biomass power project of 79.91 megawatt (MW) capacity had been installed in the state and three projects of 25 MW capacity were selling power to the state grid on preferential tariff fixed by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC),” the agriculture minister said.