Punjab will hold a brainstorming session with four other states — including Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — on October 1 to discuss in detail and find out the ways to tackle the menace of stubble-burning.
The virtual meeting, convened by the Central Government taking into account the serious implications of the pollution caused by the burning of paddy straw in the northern states, will be attended by the Ministers in-charge, secretaries, representatives of the states’ Pollution Control Boards, municipal corporations, among others.
The meeting would review the work done by the states in the last two years to handle the issue of crop residue burning.
Every year, farmers, especially in the states of Punjab and Haryana, set their crop residue on fire to quickly clear off their fields after harvesting and before cultivating next crop. It is one of the main reasons for the alarming spike in pollution levels in Delhi-NCR during the winter season.
This year, due to outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and possibility that burning of crop residue could aggravate COVID-19 conditions, the Government wanted to act ahead of time to check the problem.Punjab, in 2019, produced around 20 million tonnes of paddy residue and the farmers indulged in burning 9.8 million tonnes despite bans and prohibitory orders. In the absence of any incentives or financial assistance by the Governments, the farmers defy bans on burning paddy straw as there is a short-window between harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat.
Notably, ahead of winters, normally mid October, the farmers resort to burning stubble which leads to massive air pollution throughout the winter season, especially in Delhi-NCR regions.
Punjab government has already initiated a series of measures to check the menace of stubble burning in the ongoing Kharif season. The Government has appointed 8,000 nodal officers in the paddy-growing villages of the State, distributing machinery to farmers for in-situ management of paddy straw, besides launching the awareness campaign, among others.
Armed with a Super SMS system, the nodal officers will work in the villages till November 15 in close coordination with the staff of Cooperation, Revenue, Rural Development and Panchayats, Agriculture, Horticulture and Soil Conservation Departments, as well as the Punjab Pollution Control Board and the Guardians of Governance.They will prepare lists of owners who have given their land on rent (theka) and then call each land owner on phone with the warning that a red entry shall be made in their land record if they fail to ensure that no paddy straw is burning.
