Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday directed the officers concerned to encourage the farmers not to burn crop residue and also apprise them about different options for the management of crop residue to conserve environment.
Khatar was presiding over a meeting to review the Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme in Chandigarh on Friday.
In the meeting it was informed that 34 per cent reduction has been registered in area burnt in the state upto October 22 this year as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Last year, crop residue burning was reported on 57,000 hectares of land as compared to only about 38,000 hectares. It is also mentioned that there is reduction of 6.5 per cent incidents as compared to last year as on date.The Chief Minister directed the officers of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department to visit top 10 villages of the State where maximum crop residue burning has been reported so as to ascertain the reason behind this activity.
He said that a cash award of Rs 1000 would be given to those who would give information about the burning of crop residue in their area and the identity of the person giving the information would also be kept secret.
He said that the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the concerned districts would also organized meeting of Gram Sabha in these villages so that detailed deliberations could be held with the farmers on this issue and the actual reasons behind the same could be ascertained.
Directions were also issued for exploring various options for the purchase of crop residue from the farmers. He directed to explore the possibilities of utilization of crop residue in the sugar mills for the generation of power.
CM directed that a report in this regard be submitted at the earliest. He said that discussions should also be held on giving latest instruments and benefits of various schemes for encouraging the farmers to sell the crop residue and adopt the crop residue management.