₹ 26 lakh fine slapped on Haryana farmers for stubble burning
: The Haryana government has issued 1,041 challans and slapped nearly ₹ 26 lakh as fine on farmers in different paddy sowing districts so far for burning crop residue, it has been learnt
: The Haryana government has issued 1,041 challans and slapped nearly ₹ 26 lakh as fine on farmers in different paddy sowing districts so far for burning crop residue, it has been learnt.
Amid concerns about farm fires pushing the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) to critical levels during the paddy harvesting season, the state government has taken a series of steps to dissuade the cultivators from burning stubble while taking action against those causing air pollution.
Officials said that Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind and Karnal were among the districts where maximum number of farmers has been issued challans for burning the paddy stubble after harvesting.
The highest 288 challans have been issued in Kurukshetra, 280 in Kaithal, 162 in Karnal, 109 in Jind, 68 in Yamunanagar, 40 in Fatehabad and 24 in Hisar.
Despite the carrot and stick policy adopted by the state government to check stubble burning, Haryana on Thursday recorded 83 crop residue burning cases against 93 incidents detected last year on the same day.
With this, the cumulative count of farm fires has risen to 1,578 on Thursday against 2,103 stubble burning incidents recorded till October 27, 2021.
The highest 26 active fire locations were detected in Fatehabad followed by 21 in Kaithal, eight in Ambala, seven each in Jind and Yamunanagar, five in Kurukshetra, three in Sirsa, two each in Hisar and Palwal and one each in Karnal and Sonepat districts.
Until Thursday, Kaithal district was leading in crop residue burning cases with 442 incidents, followed by Kurukshetra (261), Karnal (230), Fatehabad (191), Jind (129), Ambala (113), Yamunanagar (91), Sirsa (32), Hisar (27), Panipat (25), Palwal (22), Sonepat (14) and one in Faridabad.
The state had started recording the stubble burning cases from September 15.
As per the official data, in past three years and till October 26, the number of farm fires Haryana had recorded stood at 1,849 (2020), 2,010 (2021) and 1,495 (2022).
Till Thursday there has been a 26% decline in farm fires in Haryana compared to the corresponding period last year.
Officials attribute this dip to the shift in the government’s approach to contain incidents of stubble burning in Haryana. The state government has launched an awareness drive in the hinterland to sensitise the cultivators and the focus was on prevention of farm fires more than on enforcement.
Among the preventive steps taken by the government to reduce stubble burning included information, education and communication activities, besides promoting ex-situ and in-situ management of stubble.
While ₹ 1,000 per acre incentive is being given to farmers for baling (ex-situ management) and ₹ 1,000 per acre for in-situ management started from this year.
The state government also gives cash prize of up to ₹ 10 lakh to the panchayat of red zone as incentive for not burning stubble.
In 2020, ₹ 8 crore ( ₹ 1,000 per acre) was given to farmers and in 2021, this amount given to the cultivators for ex-situ management rose to ₹ 19 crore.
AQI dips
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) bulletin, the air quality index (AQI) of at least nine Haryana cities, including Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Gurugram and Faridabd, was recorded as ‘very poor’ in the last 24 hours and the AQI of Bhiwani, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Palwal was recorded as ‘poor’.
The AQI in Gurugram was recorded at 362, Kaithal (332), Jind (327), Faridabad (315), Charkhi Dadri (313) and Hisar (310).