Punjab logs 1,150 farm fires, police in areas with most incidents get notice

Farmers in Punjab, India, have set fire to paddy fields, defying Supreme Court orders to stop the annual practice that contributes to toxic smog. The state recorded 1,150 farm fires on Friday, taking the total to 33,082 this season. The Punjab Police has registered 400 first information reports against violators and issued show cause notices to police chiefs in high-incident districts.

The number of stubble fires in Punjab remained above the 1,000-mark on Friday, as farmers in the state set fire to vast swathes of paddy fields, openly defying Supreme Court orders to halt the annual practice that covers most of north India under a toxic smog jacket.

A farmer burns stubble in a village near Patiala on Friday. (ANI)

The state recorded 1,150 farm fires on Friday, taking the total stubble fire tally this season to 33,082 in this harvest season. According to the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), Moga reported the most stubble burning cases at 225, followed by Barnala (117), Ferozepur (114), Sangrur (110), Bathinda (109), and Faridkot (101).

The Punjab Police, meanwhile, belatedly began cracking down on those not following the ban on stubble burning, registering 400 first information reports (FIRs) against violators, and issuing show cause notices to police chiefs of nine districts where the number of farm fire cases are high.

The notice, to officers in Barnala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Sangrur, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Moga and Muktsar, was signed by director general of police Gaurav Yadav, who asked why disciplinary action should not be initiated against them, directing that a response be given within three days.

The notices to the district police heads were issued a day after the state government issued similar notices to the deputy commissioners of these nine districts.

Punjab government officials said the stubble burning incidents are unlikely to end soon and will continue to push clouds of pollution towards the national capital, though only less than 5% of paddy is yet to be harvested in the state. State agriculture director Jaswant Singh said, “We expect that the harvesting season will culminate by next week.”.

Punjab minister Dr Balbir Singh, who was in Jalandhar for a private function, said the state government is putting in every possible effort to stop stubble burning, claiming that the Centre is not assisting the state in tackling farm fire incidents.

“The Centre should come forward to have detailed discussions with the state to find concrete solutions in order to tackle stubble burning. The Centre should also hold a meeting of all chief ministers of concerned states for this,” he said.

“The Union government should give cash incentives to farmers to manage stubble, which will wipe out the farm fire menace,” he said.

Subhash Sharma, the senior vice-president of the BJP’s state unit, said the AAP government has miserably failed in tackling the stubble burning issue despite repeated red flags raised by the Centre.

“Before forming the government in Punjab, the AAP’s Delhi government criticised the Punjab government for the stubble burning menace, but now AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is silent over the issue as its government has not put any concrete efforts to stab farm fires,” Sharma said.