The Punjab Police’s carrot-and-stick policy seems to have paid off as the state has seen a significant dip in farm fire cases this year, as compared to previous years.
The state recorded 3,916 farm fires between September 15 and November 2, a drastic decrease from 11,262 last year and 21,480 in 2022.
Following Supreme Court’s directions to take strict action against farmers burning stubble, Punjab Police registered 1,608 FIRs this year (till November) which is almost double of last year’s figure of 850.
Penalties worth ₹21.32 lakh have been imposed in 797 cases, and legal action is being taken against those found burning stubble.
Apart from punishing those setting fields on fire, the Punjab Police also launched awareness campaigns at district-levels to educate people about the ill-effects of farm fires. In all, they organised 4,669 public awareness meetings and 3,733 meetings with farmer union leaders.
Figures compiled using geo-locations of police officers have revealed that police commissioners and senior superintendents of police (SSPs), in collaboration with civil officers have conducted 762 joint field tours, while deputy superintendents of police, along with sub-divisional magistrates, have completed 1,625 joint field tours.
Ever since the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directed the SSPs to ensure effective implementation of the district action plans, special DGP Arpit Shukla, who is the nodal officer for stubble fires, issued instructions for end-to-end reporting of each fire incident and also to ensure appropriate coercive and preventive action such as registering of FIRs/launching of prosecution under Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 and other relevant laws.
{{/usCountry}}Ever since the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directed the SSPs to ensure effective implementation of the district action plans, special DGP Arpit Shukla, who is the nodal officer for stubble fires, issued instructions for end-to-end reporting of each fire incident and also to ensure appropriate coercive and preventive action such as registering of FIRs/launching of prosecution under Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 and other relevant laws.
{{/usCountry}}Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav also issued directions to SSPs to ensure that the police authorities enforce and implement various directions and orders issued with respect to ban on burning of crop residue. The DGP himself held daily conference calls with SSPs and CPs at 8.15am to keep track of the situation.
In areas where more than 25 field fires were reported, DCs and SSPs would jointly visit the spot.
Special DGP Arpit Shukla said, “Our campaign to educate farmers about harmful effects of burning stubble and taking legal action against those found setting fields on fire has yielded results as farm fires went down significantly this year. As the matter is directly related to farmers, it was a crucial task for the police force, whose main job is law enforcement. However, in this case, our field officers have handled the situation effectively with carrot and stick policy.”