Punjab crosses the 10,000 mark of stubble burning by recording over 2,000 fires on Friday

On Friday Sangrur recorded the highest number of cases with 297 fires followed by Patiala andTarn Taran where 274 and 258 cases were recorded, respectively. Kapurthala, Ferozpur, Bathinda, and Jalandhar also recorded 137, 131, 124, and 116 stubble-burning cases respectively. The remaining 15 districts also recorded 14 two fire incidents between 14 to 94 and date, Pathankot is the only district with zero stubble burning seen them. As per as cumulative cases are concerned Tarn Taran is still at the top with 1996 cases followed by Amritsar where 1245 cases had been recorded and Patiala with 1059 cases. Sangrur, which is at number 4 in stubble burning has recorded 760 cases out of which nearly 550 cases were recorded in just the last three days.

Ten districts are the major defaulters which recorded 83% of the total fires till Friday. As three of these districts are located in Majha regions, Two in Doab and five in Malwa region.

Minister on the other side while addressing gathering at Wajidpur village after giving a demo of Smart Seeder (a wheat planting sowing without setting fire to stubble) by himself driving tractor, said that this machine is made with the dual technology of Super Seeder and Happy Seeder in Punjab and it will prove a boon for straw disposal. He said that smart seeder machine, capable of working with small tractor, will also be given on subsidy.

He said that the price of Smart Seeder machine, a mixture of Happy Seeder and Super Seeder machines, is around Rs 2,30,000. This machine is becoming the choice of farmers due to its small tractor operation and low diesel consumption. This machine sows one acre in an hour at the rate of 5.0-6.0 liters of diesel per hour.

Dhaliwal said that we need to replace the traditional crop rotation of paddy and wheat and switch to alternative crops like sugarcane, maize and pulses to save air from getting polluted and water from depleting in Punjab. He said that Punjab has sacrificed its natural resources to fill the country’s food bowls. He said that now the time has come that we should also save the water of our state. He said that maximum area should be brought under sugarcane. He said that the government has paid all the dues of sugarcane and has also increased the SAP as per the wishes of the farmers.

He appealed to the farmers to give full support to the efforts of the government to save the environment and water table of Punjab from further depletion so that the economy of Punjab state based on agriculture can also be sustained.