To curb the incidents of stubble burning, Haryana Government has taken action against 1586 farmers across the state.
Out of this, police case has been registered against 244 farmers and a fine of Rs 18.65 lakh has been recovered from 695 farmers in Haryana, said Haryana Environment Minister, Vipul Goel on Tuesday.
He said that Haryana State Pollution Control Board is continuously taking stern action to curb rising air pollution due to the stubble burning.
While lashing out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Goel said that Kejriwal is doing politics on the issue of smog.
“In view of National Green Tribunal orders, the Haryana Government is quite serious to deal with this issue. Action is being taken on the farmers indulge in stubble burning. At the same time, they are also being awarded and sensitized not to burn the stubble, but Delhi’s AAP government has not taken any such steps till date,” said the Minister.
Goel claimed that even in Delhi, crop residues are being burnt by farmers, but Delhi Government has not taken any action.
Apart from giving subsidies to the farmers, he said that the Haryana Government had spent crores of rupees even after making them aware. But, Delhi government has completely failed in this issue, added he.
While sharing data, the Environment Minister said that action was taken against 1493 farmers till November 12 and 93 farmers on November 13.
Giving more details, he said that on the issue of stubble burning, action was taken on 369 farmers in Fatehabad and fine of Rs 55,000 was recovered from 21 farmers.
Similarly, action has been taken against 79 people in Hisar, 54 in Jind, 138 in Kaithal, 357 in Karnal, 184 in Kurukshetra, six in Panchkula, 40 in Panipat and 301 in Sirsa. So far, fine of Rs 18.65 lakh had been recovered from farmers, he said.
The Minister also appealed to the farmers not to burn crop residue and cooperate in government’s campaign to curb air pollution.
For this, the government is providing them equipment on subsidy basis. The fertility of land also shrinks because of the burning of crop residues and this would cause loss to farmers in coming days, added he.
Cong asks Haryana Govt to stop politics on pollution
Haryana Congress has asked the Manohar lal Khattar led Haryana Government to stop playing politics on pollution and adopt preventive-cum-curative approach to combat and defeat the menace of lungs-choking smog which is assuming alarming proportions.
Kiran Chaudhry, leader of the Haryana Congress legislature Party on Tuesday said that he BJP Government should engage MGNREGA workers to root our rice stubble from the fields, give farmers loans to buy machines to do the job, and shut down all schools for another week or so in the NCR, including Gurugram, Faridabad and parts of Sonipat district.
Since the pollution levels in these districts had entered the danger zone making many, especially children and the aged, complain of respiratory problems and other health conditions, urgent measures must be taken to mitigate pollution, she said.
On the issue of stubble, Chaudhry asked the government to stop penalising the farmers for burning it.
The government should hire MGNREGA workers to root out stubble and pay them wages. Also, it should provide the farmers easy loans for the purchase or hiring of such machines as simultaneously cut rice stubble and sow wheat seeds, she added.