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Despite 20% jump in farm fire incidents, Punjab minister says cases have dropped
Punjab agriculture minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal said that the state has reported fewer incidents of farm fires as compared to the corresponding period in the last two years
Even as Punjab recorded the season’s maximum cases of stubble burning on Monday, agriculture minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal maintained that the state has reported fewer incidents of farm fires as compared to the corresponding period in the last two years.
As per the data provided by the state remote sensing centre, Punjab has witnessed 16,004 paddy residue burning events till October 31, whereas the number of such cases was 13,269 during the corresponding period last year (2021).
The state has recorded about 20% rise in such cases as compared to last year.
Dhaliwal, who was in Ludhiana to attend a seminar on women empowerment, termed the efforts of the Aam Aadmi Party government in curbing the cases of stubble burning in Punjab a “success”. He claimed that state has reported fewer cases of stubble burning as compared to the last two years. Without citing any figures or sources, he said, “I will present data showing a decline in the cases of farm fires in the state.”
The minister, while responding to a query on the impact of stubble burning on the air quality in north India, said the paddy harvesting season which began in September will be over in next three to four days.
“The recent increase in the cases of stubble burning in Sangrur and other parts of the Malwa region is due to late harvesting of the PUSA-44 variety,” he added.
On the suspension of four officials of the agriculture department, he said, “The officials in the agriculture department were instructed before the start of the season to keep the cases of stubble burning in check so that the pollution in Punjab and neighbouring states can be controlled.” He said that action had to be taken against those who did not perform their duties responsibly.
“The central government backtracked from contributing its share to compensate the paddy farmers as proposed by the Punjab government. Farmers are using the equipment provided by the Punjab government to manage the stubble without burning it on their farms and things will get back to normal in two days,” he added.
Fall in area under stubble fires, says chief secretary
Meanwhile, Punjab chief secretary VK Janjua said there was a considerable fall in the area under paddy stubble fires during the current season as compared to the previous years.
“By October 27 in the previous paddy harvest seasons, four lakh hectares went under the farm fires which in the current season during the same time is 2.95 lakh hectares,” Janjua said, adding that there was a 35% fall in the area under farm fires.
While chairing a high-level meeting on Monday, he instructed all deputy commissioners to rope in fire tenders to control the events of farm blaze. “The Bhagwant Mann government is committed to controlling the trend of stubble burning incidents,” he added.
‘Numbardars to be held accountable’
Janjua also asked to fix responsibility of the numbardars to prevent paddy stubble burning incidents, saying that they should be entrusted upon the duty to sensitise farmers not to burn crop residue and their accountability be fixed if the fire incidents take place in their villages.
(With inputs from HTC Chandigarh)
