There is a ban on stubble burning in Punjab. Along with this, under the awareness campaign, farmers are being alerted not to burn stubble. Even after this, the incidents of stubble are not decreasing but are increasing more. The situation is that the paddy harvesting season has just started, and till September 30, incidents of stubble burning in Punjab have increased 10 times compared to last year.
Paddy is cultivated in more than 31 lakh hectares of area in Punjab, and the practice of burning stubble has put farmers in a kind of helplessness. The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has identified 16 districts and 663 villages where incidents of stubble burning are highest. This year, the central government has given financial assistance to Punjab for crop residue management (CRM) machines and provided 1,30,851 machines. But farmers say that their access to these machines is limited. Lakhwinder Singh, a farmer from Ferozepur district, said that the subsidy on machines is not being properly availed, as the dealers already increase the prices.
Although the central and state governments are hoping to improve the pollution situation this year. They have tried to take proactive steps for this, but farmers say that adequate measures are still not being taken at the ground level. Pulwinder Mann, a farmer from Attari village in Amritsar, said that burning stubble has been a quick solution for them to clear the fields for sowing wheat and other Rabi crops after harvesting paddy. Mann’s field is full of green crops, but the problem of stubble burning is also deep, which creates controversy in Punjab, Haryana and New Delhi.
This problem of farmers reflects the lack of options for them. Farmers like Pulwinder Mann are saying that without government help they cannot take any other measure. Despite the efforts of the central and state governments, if the problems of farmers are not addressed at the ground level, it is likely that incidents of stubble burning will continue to increase this year as well, which may further aggravate the pollution problem. PLC & GT
