Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said that the state is fully geared up to handle the issue of agricultural crop residue burning and air pollution issues ahead of the winter season.
The Chief Minister was speaking during a high-level meeting chaired by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav to discuss the implementation of an action plan for improvement of air quality in NCR ahead of the approaching winter season, when the incidents of stubble burning tend to increase leading to dangerous rise in levels of air pollution.
The meeting which was held through video conferencing was attended by Ministers and higher officials of various departments from Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Lauding the dedicated steps taken by Haryana for improving air quality, Bhupender Yadav said that the Haryana Government's decision to use bio-decomposer technology on one lakh acres of area is certainly a pivotal step for stubble burning management. He also appreciated the work done by State Government for switching industries to CNG and PNG. "Haryana Government has done remarkable work in the field of stubble management as a result of which decline has been seen in the number of stubble burning incidents in the state," Yadav said.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister urged the Centre Government for the re-opening of formaldehyde industries in Yamunanagar. Urging the Union Minister, Khattar said that due to some objection, these industries were closed but then later the registration for their refunctioning was started but then again these units were closed due to court orders. "I urge the Centre to intervene in this matter so as to give some relief to the industrialists running these units," he said.
The Chief Minister while urging the Union Minister to expedite the work of laying CNG and PNG pipelines in the pending areas of the state said that because of the non-availability of these pipelines, many industries might shut down. At the places where the pipelines are available, switching the industrial units to CNG and PNG has already been done in a phased manner, he informed.
Khattar also urged the Union Minister to allow the implementation of pollution control provisions as district specified rather than entire NCR specified as sometimes difficulty is being faced while implementing these provisions.
"At present, around 47 percent of the area of Haryana comes under the NCR region. Therefore, it is requested that all such provisions should be implemented within the radius of 10 km of NCT and Delhi or within the 10 km radius of cities having 10 lakh population or these provisions should be implemented as per district specified, not as NCR," he said.
As many as 34,372 machines (besides 19,353 rotavators which are removed from the list of crop residue management (CRM) implements by the Government of India are available in Haryana with individual farmers in 4,224 Custom Hiring Centers, the Chief Minister said.
RED, YELLOW AND GREEN ZONES FOR CROP RESIDUE BURNING
To ensure efficient management of stubble burning, the villages of the state have been categorized into red, yellow and green zones in terms of incidents of crop residue burning based on the data provided by the Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC) to the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department. The Chief Minister said that a detailed action plan has been prepared for the prevention of crop residue burning in the current season and the same has been discussed at length with the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM).
It was further informed that Haryana is providing assistance on Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines that is 50 percent for individuals and 80 percent for Custom Hiring Centers. An amount of Rs 198.53 crore is available under the scheme. Further, the funds released under the Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) scheme will also be utilized for providing CRM machinery. The applications invited in the first phase have been processed by Deputy Commissioners concerned, and all the applicants in red and yellow zone villages have been allowed to purchase the machines.
In the second phase, applications from red and yellow zone villages have been invited till September 25, and the same will be processed on September 28, by Deputy Commissioners who are the Chairmen of the Committee constituted for the purpose. Besides this, an app called FARM has been developed for the booking of equipment by farmers.
Apart from this, Haryana is implementing a state scheme for providing an incentive rate of rs. 1000 per acre on paddy straw by product for the management of crop residue for baled paddy. A provision of rate of Rs 200 crore has been made during the current year.