With air quality in the National Capital Region turning from “very poor” to “severe”, farm fires in Punjab have come under the spotlight yet another year. On Wednesday, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav took to Twitter to blame the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled state for “turning Delhi into a gas chamber”. The tweet drew an angry response from Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who appeared on a video to accuse “the Centre and the BJP of unleashing a slanderous campaign against Punjab’s hardworking farmers”. The blame game evokes a distinct sense of deja vu — notwithstanding the change of actors, the drama remains the same. In the past, Delhi’s AAP government would call out its counterparts in Punjab and Haryana for their failure to curb stubble burning. The AAP’s assumption of office in Punjab had led to hopes that the two states would cooperate to rein in the annual pollution. Data from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), however, shows that farm fire episodes in Punjab have gone up by 19 per cent over last year. On Wednesday, the state registered 3,634 instances of stubble burning, the highest in the season.
There is a ray of hope amid the gloom. Instances of crop residue burning have been coming down in Haryana in the last five years. This year, the state witnessed a 30 per cent reduction compared to last year. Its success owes much to the state government’s drives to sensitise farmers — a project in which field staff of agriculture departments and local level officials work closely with people from diverse sections, including religious leaders and teachers. Haryana’s strategy involves the promotion of machines that help in disposing the crop waste. The state government provides these machines to hiring centres on 80 per cent subsidy and monitors their use. It also arranges moving of the crop waste from the fields to biomass power projects.
