States letting people die: SC on air pollution

Asks Punjab, Haryana, UP to support farmers not burning stubble

states typically set fire to crop residue after harvesting as a quick and cheap way to turn the field around for sowing winter crops.

At present, farmers are entitled to hiring the requisite machinery at subsidised rates from cooperative societies, but the court was told that farmers still found the method inviable – prompting the court to order the charges to be waived entirely.

The court also asked the Centre, states and the ministries of agriculture and environment and forest to draw up a comprehensive action plan that will take care of the interests of the farmers wherever needed. It gave three months to prepare a scheme that will take care of environmental issues as well.

Through the hearing, the judges remarked on the gravity of the problem several times and rejected explanations by the representatives of the governments. “Pollution is bad. If attorney general says we have no suggestion, this cannot be the way a democratic government will function,” justice Mishra remarked.

At one point, when informed that farm fires were lower in Haryana than Punjab, the judges summoned Punjab’s chief secretary sternly. “You think only poor farmers should be penalised. And officers should go free? Is this the way you people are acting? This is sheer inaction. Call the chief secretary. We have several questions,” the judges said.

The chief secretary of Punjab, where the maximum number of instances has taken place, told the court that the state had asked the federal government for financial help to pay farmers an incentive, which would require about ₹1,800 crore – an expenditure the state could not make since, he added.