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₹500cr action plan to curb farm fires ready: Punjab minister Khudian
Minister Khudian says govt offering 50% subsidy to individuals and 80% to farmer groups, co-operatives, panchayats on CRM machines’ purchase
The Punjab government has formulated an action plan worth ₹500 crore to provide farmers with latest crop residue management (CRM) machinery on subsidised prices and for implementing strategies to manage the paddy straw efficiently, agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said on Sunday, and added that the initiative is aimed at bringing farm fire count down to zero.
Khudian said the agriculture and farmers welfare department has invited online applications from state farmers for subsidies on CRM machines. Applications can be through portal ‘agrimachinerypb.com’ from April 22 to May 12.
To be sure, paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution in the National Capital Region in October and November. As the window for rabi crop wheat is very short after the paddy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly get rid of crop residue for sowing of the next crop.
Encouraging the farmers to take advantage of the scheme, Khudian said the state government is offering a 50% subsidy to individuals and 80% to farmer groups, co-operative societies and gram panchayats on purchase of CRM machines.
The minister said the subsidy will be available on machines such as super SMS, happy seeder, super seeder, surface seeder, smart seeder, zero till drill, baler, rake, shrub master/rotary slasher, paddy straw chopper/shredder/mulcher, crop reaper and hydraulic reversible mould board plough, among others.
Agriculture department administrative secretary Basant Garg said the state has seen significant progress in crop residue management. The state government distributed 17,600 subsidised CRM machines in the previous season, he added.
Garg said 1,331 custom hiring centres (CHCs) were established to facilitate CRM practices. These efforts resulted in a 70% decrease in farm fire incidents during the previous season as compared to 2023, down to 10,909 from 36,663, the official added.
In 2024, a record 5,783 first-information reports (FIR) were registered against farmers for stubble burning, which is five times more than 2023’s figure, as per the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) data. Additionally, 5,454 red entries were also made in the revenue records of erring farmers.
Besides registering FIRs under Section 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Punjab government also imposed environmental compensation of ₹2.16 crore in 5,515 cases in 2024. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had doubled the environment compensation from ₹2,500 per two acres to ₹5,000 this season. Farmers with two acres or more but less than five acres were to pay ₹10,000 against ₹5,000 earlier. Cultivators having land of more than five acres were made to pay an environmental compensation of ₹30,000 per incidence.
With 1,725 cases, Sangrur achieved the notorious distinction of having the highest number of stubble burning cases in 2024. In 2023 too, Sangrur had reported the highest 5,613 cases in the state.
SC pulled up state in 2024
In October 2024, the Supreme Court pulled up Punjab and Haryana for tolerating farm fires by collecting nominal fines without initiating criminal prosecution against a single farmer under the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR & Adjoining Areas Act, 2021.
