Stubble burning: 196 Punjab farmers held, 327 FIRS lodged

BATHINDA/LUDHIANA/PATIALA: Aday after the Supreme Court rap for failing to put a stop to stubble burning, the Punjab government on Tuesday arrested at least 196 farmers for violating the ban and registered 327 first information reports (FIRS) even as 6,668 farm fires – the highest in a single day this season – were reported from across the state.

The farmers were arrested under section 188 (disobeying the order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, a bailable offence, as they flouted the ban orders issued by the district authorities. The bulk of the arrests were made in Malwa region which is primarily responsible for the spurt in farm fires in the past three days.

Of the 101 farmers arrested in south Malwa, 74 farmers were in Moga followed by 14 in Mansa, eight in Muktsar and five in Bathinda. In addition, 167 FIRS were also lodged against farmers in seven districts in the region. In Ludhiana, 49 FIRS were registered and 22 farmers arrested for setting the paddy residue on fire. In Tarn Taran district, 36 farmers were arrested.

Similarly, the Fatehgarh

Sahib police arrested 37 farmers and registered 47 FIRS against erring farmers. Red entries were also made in the revenue record of at least 850 farmers, 704 of them in Sangrur alone, so that to deprive them of benefits under the government 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 the Supreme Court direction to immediately put an end to farm fires.

However, the government crackdown had little impact on farmers who remained defiant as 6,668 stubble burning incidents were reported on Tuesday. The total count of farm fires has shot up to 37,935 whereas 27,224 cases of stubble burning were reported till November 5 last year. The number of active fires recorded this year is even higher than 37,298 stubble burning cases during the corresponding period of 2017.

On Monday, Punjab had reported 5,953 farm fires. The spike in stubble burning had prompted the Supreme Court to summon chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Anil Sood, senior scientist at the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, PAU, said most of the paddy straw burning incidents have been reported from Sangrur, Ferozepur, Mansa, Moga and Bathinda. The arrests and punitive action have upset the farmers’ unions. In Muktsar, farmers took out a march under the banner of the BKU (Ugrahan) and burn paddy stubble to register their protest. They have also announced gherao of district officials.