563 FIRs filed against farmers for stubble burning this season
GURUGRAM: The Haryana government has, so far this season, filed 563 FIRs against farmers for stubble burning, collecting over ₹7 lakh in environmental compensation, as per data accessed by HT. Stubble burning is a major cause behind the deteriorating air quality in the Delhi-NCR.
Last year, only 167 FIRs were filed against 10,000 cases reported from September to November. “Of 5,464 cases of paddy burning reported by the Haryana Space Application Centre (Harsac) that monitors the stubble burning activities in the form of satellite imageries, 563 FIRs have been filed from September 25 till November 7. In summer too, when wheat stubble burning is active, over 7,557 cases were reported this year, of which 95 FIRs have been filed,” a senior official looking over the issue said. However, the official refused to share the amount recovered by the state government till now.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has fixed a penalty of ₹2,500 per incident if a farmer has less than two acres of land and ₹15,000 for those owning more than five acres.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) on Wednesday submitted a report to the Haryana Human Rights Commission, which took cognizance of the stubble burning incidents in the state.
Rajesh Garhia, senior scientist, HSPCB said, “The commission took suo moto cognizance of a Hindustan Times report published June 6, on increase in the stubble burning incidents in the state. It sought a detailed report from HSPCB, state police, agriculture and, science and technology department on action taken.”
Meanwhile, an HSPCB official said that they have been able to bring down the number of paddy straw burning incidents. The pollution watchdog on Tuesday reported that there has been an almost 20% drop in paddy burning between September 25 and November 11, from 7,494 incidents reported last year.
“Haryana government is following the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 prohibiting burning of leftover straw in the state. To keep a check, a state-level committee and district-level committees have been formed. These committees have been monitoring the 30 villages where crop residue burning is maximum,” said Garhia.
He added that they are also trying to create awareness among farmers through advertisements in newspapers, on television, radio, and the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap). “We have also taken action against industrial clusters of Faridabad and Gurugram for violating the norms,” Garhia said.
The Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (Hareda) is planning to set up six paddy straw-based power projects of about 50 MW capacity in Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Kaithal, Jind and Fatehabad by 2020-21. It is likely to consume about 5.5 lakh tonnes of paddy straw as fuel, annually. Also, Haryana Bio-Energy Policy 2018 has a target of installing biomass-based power projects of 150 MW by 2022, as per the report submitted to the commission.