Haryana presents its measures to tackle air pollution in meeting with Union environment minister

Ministers and officials of various departments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan governments attended the meeting held through video conferencing.

“Haryana has also laid special emphasis on reducing the increasing pollution levels. As a result, there has been a drastic reduction in the use of diesel run-generators in housing societies of Gurgaon,” Yadav added. He said the chief minister requested the Union minister to extend the deadline for brick kilns regarding the use of clean fuel in the Haryana-NCR region till March 31, 2023.

“Sharing the demand raised by the industrial organisations regarding the high cost of using clean fuel, the chief minister urged the Union minister to make a provision to provide a loan facility from banks at a viable rate of interest to industrialists for setting up the technologies required for use of clean fuel.

He also urged the Union minister to ensure CNG-PNG supply in the industrial areas of the Haryana-NCR region like Israna, Samalkha, Gohana and Jhajjar at the earliest,” the spokesperson said.

Haryana’s special framework for stubble management

“To control stubble burning, the Haryana government has implemented a framework which includes in-situ crop residue management, ex-situ management, effective monitoring, enforcement and wide reach of information education and communication (IEC) activities,” said Khattar in the meeting.

“In Haryana, paddy is grown in about 4,800 villages and the villages have been divided into three colour zones namely green, yellow and red. Under In-situ management, 23 lakh MT crop residues will be utilised through various machines and decomposers and 13 MT crop residues will be utilized under ex-situ management. So far only 83 incidents of stubble burning have taken place. Farmers are being continuously made aware of the ill effects of stubble burning,” Khattar said.

“Soon, a tender would also be floated for the use of 20 lakh MT of torrefied biomass pellets in the thermal plant. Working in the direction of finding a permanent solution for stubble management, the State government is also making a plan to buy Paddy straw at MSP. This will directly benefit the farmers along with giving them an option of earning additional income,” he added.

Machines for stubble management

Khattar added, “a total of 72,777 machines have been provided to farmers for stubble management in the last four years. However, this year only, 7,146 machines have been made available. These include baling unit, super seeder, zero till seed cum fertilizer drill etc. An incentive amount of Rs 1000 per acre to farmers for bailing (in-situ management) is being given by the state government and along with transportation charges of bales at Rs 500 per acre limited to a maximum of Rs 15,000 to gaushalas. Special provision for additional top-up assistance of Rs 500/MT in addition to the current provision of assistance at Rs 500/MT thereby, a total of Rs 1000/MT is being provided to the cluster identified by IOCL for 2G ethanol plant for supply of roughly 2 lakh MT residue management”.

Haryana to allow only green crackers

While strictly adhering to the orders of the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal (NGT) to control air pollution in the NCR region, Haryana State Pollution Control Board has prohibited the manufacturing, sale and use of all kinds of firecrackers except for green crackers, Khattar said.