Centre refuses to give farmers cash incentives for not burning stubble

It is important to note that the paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November as farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue before cultivating wheat and potato. Additionally, Punjab generates around 20 million tons of paddy straw annually.

Punjab chief minister, in a video message, on Saturday said, “we had written to the Centre that it should help us over the issue of stubble burning. But the Centre has turned down our demand.” However, the Punjab chief minister informed that “it does not matter. If the central government is not supporting then it does not mean we will not do anything.”

Additionally, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann informed that he has asked his officers to come up with another idea to check the problem. Sharing some data related to stubble burning, Mann said paddy is sown over 75 lakh acres. Farmers over an area of 37 lakh acres manage stubble through crop residue management machines or other measures, the chief minister further notified.

Bhagwant Mann said the government is arranging machines at a big scale for the rest 38 lakh acres while adding that more than one lakh crop residue management machines will be made available this season for managing stubble, according to news agency PTI report. It is worth noting that under the in-situ management (mixing crop residue in soil) of paddy stubble scheme, the Centre provides funds for supplying subsidised machines for management of crop residue, as per report. 

(With inputs from PTI) 

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