34.5% decline in stubble burning cases in Haryana, SC told

The Haryana government has said in its undertaking before the Supreme Court that there has been 34.5% decline in the cases of stubble burning till November 24 this paddy harvesting season.

In an affidavit submitted before the apex court, the government said that the number of farm fires till November 24 was 6,581 this year against 10,050 last year in the same period.

While there were 4,135 cases between November 6 and November 24 in 2018, the number this year for the said period has come down to 1,408, a slide of 65.9%, the government affidavit read.

About its multi-pronged initiatives in cases of farm fires, the government said it had registered 2008 cases till November 24 this year of which challans were issued in 714 cases and penalty worth Rs 19.07 lakh imposed. Between November 6 and November 24, as many as 1,103 complaints were registered and penalty worth Rs 9.7 lakh imposed, besides issuing challans in 351 cases.

The government said while the entire non-basmati variety of paddy had been harvested, 94.8% basmati crop has been harvested.

Stating that against the target of providing 7,468 machines for residue management to individual farmers, the government provided such machines to 5,188 farmers (69.5% target achieved), while 120.7% target had been achieved through the custom hiring centres (CHCs) which provided 1,569 machines against the target of 1,300 machines.

The government further said that out of 7,088 villages, no fire incident was reported in 5,495 villages and 20,000 National Service Scheme (NSS) students (parali paltan) and 3,000 women volunteers (Rani Jhansi brigade) were spreading awareness about ill-effects of stubble burning and helping farmers hire machines from CHCs, the government said.