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Action against six officials for failing to stop farm fires: Ambala DC
Gupta said that earlier a complaint was filed before a court by the department of agriculture and farmer’s welfare, based on which the process was initiated and action will taken
Ambala deputy commissioner Parth Gupta said that action will be taken against six government officials for alleged negligence in controlling farm fires in the district.
Those facing action include Shahazadpur Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Barara Naib tehsildar, Ambala-1; Barara Block Agriculture Officers; SHO Panokhara police station and SHO Parao police station.
Gupta said that earlier a complaint was filed before a court by the department of agriculture and farmer’s welfare, based on which the process was initiated and action will taken.
“Following the orders of the Supreme Court, field duties were assigned to officials to curb incidents of stubble burning with strict instructions that crop residue should not be set on fire at any cost. For this, different committees were also formed and officers were also given responsibilities according to their authorised areas. He said that despite all efforts, more cases of crop residue burning were reported under the areas of many officers and the responsibilities of the officers have also been fixed,” he added.
Officials of the agriculture department said that prosecution was launched in the courts by the concerned sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) last week against the officials in their respective areas for negligence.
Earlier, three officials from the agriculture department were suspended for similar reasons as part of the state-wide action during the hearing before the apex court.
Gupta said that a fine totalling ₹1.07 lakh was imposed on 43 farmers for stubble burning, along with registration of 40 FIR’s and 46 red entries into the online portals.
Four stubble-burning cases today
As per the data, just four stubble-burning cases were recorded in the state on Wednesday, thus taking the total number to 1,024 for this season.
Visibility affected
As the winter kicked in, the residents woke up to poor visibility due to smog in the state.
As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the visibility dropped to just 50 metres in Hisar and 400 metres in Karnal and Ambala.
As the pollution levels surged in Delhi and turned ‘severe’, the air in several places in Haryana, mostly in the National Capital Region (NCR), also worsened.
As per the AQI bulletin as of 4 pm, of the 26 places in the ‘very poor’ category in the country, nine, including Bhiwani 375, Panipat 370, Sonepat 338, Gurugram 321, Jind 321, Dharuhera 312, Ballabgarh 307, Charkhi Dadri 307 and Rohtak 303, belonged to Haryana.
