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Punjab, Haryana govts slow in acting against farmers burning stubble: SC
The apex court said everyone was “smart enough” to understand during certain times data was collected and they did not burn stubble at that time.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Punjab and Haryana governments have been slow in taking action against farmers burning stubble and a mechanism was required to be devised for a long-term solution to the problem.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said a machinery had to be set in motion to ensure 24/7 data was available.
“We propose to hear all the parties exhaustively. It is because of sowing done belatedly all this problem is happening. We want to go to the root of the matter and issue directions. Something needs to be done. Every year this problem cannot arise. From the data available, we can say both states are very slow in taking action against farmers,” the bench remarked.
The apex court said everyone was “smart enough” to understand during certain times data was collected and they did not burn stubble at that time.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, said ISRO was working on the protocol.
The bench took note of a media report related to Punjab wherein a land record officer and president of the Sangrur Block Patwari Union, reportedly admitted to advising farmers to burn stubble after 4 pm to avoid satellite detection.
Calling it “very serious” if the media report was to be believed, the court directed Punjab state officials to not permit farmers to take advantage of the fact that activities were being detected during the particular few hours of the day.”The Punjab government should immediately issue instructions to all officers not to indulge in any such activities,” it said.
The Centre previously opposed in the top court a proposal to form a committee of former apex court judges to oversee the implementation of measures to curb stubble burning, a key contributor to Delhi-NCR’s air pollution.
In an order on November 18, the top court directed the Centre and the CAQM to procure data on farm fires using geostationary satellites, as opposed to NASA’s polar-orbiting satellites, to ensure real-time monitoring.
The court noted existing data from NASA satellites was limited to specific time windows and directed the involvement of ISRO in utilising stationary satellites for comprehensive day-long monitoring.
Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been informed through a report that Punjab’s stubble burning incidents have decreased by 70%.
The NGT previously sought regular reports from the authorities in the state on the issue of air pollution caused in the NCR owing to stubble burning.
A report dated November 26 was filed by the director of agriculture and farmers’ welfare department, saying “As a result of the efforts made by the state of Punjab, the number of paddy stubble burning incidents reduced from 36,551 on November 25, 2023, to 10,479 on November 25, 2024— a decrease of 70%.”
The state recorded a significant reduction of 26.55% in stubble-burning cases in 2023 than 2022 when it reported 49,992 cases. The cases dropped by 29.84% in 2022 as compared to 2021 when 71,159 such cases were recorded. In 2020, Punjab had recorded 76,929 cases of stubble fires.
The report stated about 19.52 million tonnes of paddy straw was expected to be managed in the year through various means, including in-situ (managing paddy straw on the field) and ex-situ (transporting the straw for various uses) methods and using the residue for animal fodder.
“In ex-situ management, primarily balers are used for collection of straw before transportation for industrial and other uses. As per the demand from farmers, till date 2,183 different types of balers and 2,039 rakes have been made available on subsidy under the crop residue management (CRM) scheme,” the report said. A baler is a tractor-mounted implement to compress crop residue into cylindrical or rectangular bales while a rake collects the straw in rows.
According to the report, more than 6.2 million tonne of paddy straw was managed through ex-situ methods in 2024.
“The department will carry out a gap analysis after the season is over to figure out the requirement of in-situ and ex-situ machinery for the year 2025. The annual action plan for 2025 will be prepared based on this gap analysis and the requisite funds will be requested,” it said.
