Record 2,131 farm fires reported in Punjab this season

Chandigarh: According to Haryana's Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the number of farm fire occurrences has decreased by over 25% from the previous year and is far lower than in Punjab.

In an effort to find a long-term solution to the problem of stubble burning, he added that an expert group has been established to investigate the idea of purchasing paddy straw from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP).

Khattar said while Punjab reported 13,873 farm fire incidents from September 15 to October 30, Haryana had seen only about 10 per cent of such cases.

"If we compare with Punjab, it is 10 per cent. The farm fire incidents in Haryana have reduced this year. As against 2,561 incidents reported (in Haryana) last year, this year, there were 1,925, a drop of nearly 25 per cent. As against this, Punjab has reported 13,873 incidents," Khattar said.

The National Green Tribunal has also been giving directions to Punjab from time to time on the stubble burning issue, he said.

Recently, I had spoken about MSP for stubble. For this, we have formed a committee which will give its recommendations. We will take further step once it committee gives its recommendations," Khattar said.

The committee will not be limited to MSP, but will also look into the entire gamut of the stubble-burning issue, he added.

The state director general for agriculture will be the committee's chairman while the DG of the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency will be one of its members.

The panel comprises three experts — Mukesh Jain, director, of Northern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Baldev Dogra, dean of, College of Agricultural Engineering, Haryana Agriculture University and Jagminder Nain, joint director, Agriculture.

The Haryana chief minister said pollution was not limited to an area or a state and that its adverse impact were felt in "Haryana, Chandigarh and in Delhi, Gurugram".

On the approximately 60 lakh MT crop residue generated from stubble burning, Khattar said a good part of it can be put to use in various industries and that 24 industries had expressed interest in buying the stubble.

A tender is also being floated for manufacturing pellets from paddy stubble and these will be used in thermal plants, he added.

Khattar said his government had taken several steps to bring down paddy stubble burning, which includes incentives to farmers, running awareness campaigns, providing machinery for stubble management and even adopting strict measures such as lodging FIRs and imposing fines on violators.

A framework to control stubble burning has also been implemented and this includes in-situ and ex-situ crop residue management, effective monitoring, enforcement and wide reach of information, he said.

With PTI inputs