Punjab sees 1,238 farm fires, fines imposed in 190 cases

The high number of fires reported this early into the harvest season comes despite the state government distributing around 1.2 lakh stubble management machines under the Centre-sponsored Corp Residues Management (CRM) scheme. A massive awareness campaign has also been launched in Punjab at the village, district and state levels. Now, the government has started penalising farmers and making red entries in land records for all fields that have been set on fire after they’ve been harvested.

Till October 15, 561 of the 1,238 fires were reported from Amritsar followed by 318 from Tarn Taran, 62 from Kapurthala, 61 from Gurdaspur, 47 from Ferozepur, 40 from Patiala and Jalandhar each and 23 from Sangrur.

Of the Rs 4.92 lakh imposed as penalty by PPCB, Rs 3.47 lakh was imposed in 139 cases from Amritsar. Also, 133 more cases have been identified where such a penalty would be imposed.

In 194 cases, a red entry was made in Khasra Girdawari (crop cultivation register) thereby indicating that the said cultivators have set fields on fire post-paddy harvesting.

Those who have been red-marked will not be provided welfare schemes launched by the government for farmers.

Farmers have been demanding financial aid from the government to run the stubble management machines on their farms. But the government has kept its focus on in-situ (incorporating the stubble in fields) and ex-situ (collecting stubble for industrial use and other purposes) through the machines being provided under CRM.

The government has launched various mobile vans, and engaged students of the school and colleges, NGOs and people from the civil society to educate the farmers apart from appointing nodal officers across the state.

“This year the Punjab government is organising 2,800 farmers’ camps at the village, block and district levels to educate farmers about the ill effects of the burning on the soil, their health and the environment,” said Director Punjab Agriculture Dr Gurvinder Singh, adding that they have involved every department to check stubble burning.

Experts said that the September rains have narrowed the harvesting window to 15-20 days and that farmers may use the slash-and-burn method, which is quicker than using more ecological methods, to get the fields ready to sow wheat in time.

Even accredited social health workers (ASHA workers) have been trained by the government to educate rural women about the benefits of non-burning stubble in the field.

The joint Director Punjab agriculture department and nodal officer of crop residue management machines, engineer Jagdish Singh told The Indian Express that Asha workers are also involved in the stubble burning checking programme in around 10 districts of the state where the stubble burning cases have been reported quite high for the past some years. “ We want to educate every member of the farmer family about the ill effecs of burning stubble, said Jagdish.

Meanwhile, the harvesting of paddy crops has started picking up and now 3 to 3.5 lakh tonne paddy is arriving in the Mandis daily. Till Sunday, a total of 28.75 lakh paddy arrived in grain markets of which 27.61 lakh tonnes were purchased by state agencies.