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Act tough on erring officials, farmers, Haryana DCs told amid spike in farm fires
Haryana chief secretary’s action comes after the sudden spike in the incidents of farm fires in the state over the past one week.
With the state having recorded an over three-fold increase in stubble-burning cases this year so far, the deputy commissioners (DC) have been told to take stringent measures to contain the menace.
Haryana chief secretary on Tuesday held a video conference call with the DCs and the district-level officers of the agriculture and revenue departments, directing them to take strict action to ensure the farmers do not burn the crop waste.
The chief secretary directed the officials to regularly conduct effective review meetings with sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) for implementation of strategies to curb stubble burning. He called for stringent action against officers and individuals found involved in active fire locations, stressing that daily reviews will be conducted to closely monitor the ground situation.
The DCs have also been asked to maintain coordination with village sarpanches. Action, the chief secretary said, should be taken against all officials, farmers and representatives of the village panchayats if they fail to comply with the government’s directions.
The action comes after the sudden spike in the incidents of farm fires in the state over the past one week.
As per the data of the Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), 319 active fire locations were detected between September 15 to October 10, against the 83 active fire locations reported last year and 196 in 2021 in the comparable period.
Experts monitoring the situation on ground have attributed the sudden spike in the cases to the change in the harvesting schedule due to short-duration varieties and advance procurement by a week.
“There is a need to focus on both in-situ and ex-situ management of the crop waste. Since the straw-bailer management technology is only three years old and it is also semi-automatic and requires lots of machinery and labour, there is a need to also encourage the farmers for the In-Situ management for which the government is providing subsidised machines since 2016”, Aditya Dabas, deputy director agriculture Panpiat, said.
“A technological shift takes several years as the government has to make a lot of efforts to promote CNG-powered vehicles. It will take three more years for the 100% management of the paddy waste,” he added.
Soon after the meeting, Panipat DC Virender Dahiya warned the officials to face a charge-sheet if they failed to check farm fires in the district. He issued clear instructions to the officials to lodge a first information report (FIR) against farmers found burning paddy waste.
