With all its attempts to douse the smouldering problem of stubble burning going up in flames, Punjab Government has now decided to address this “national problem” “permanently” by coming up with an “economically-viable and farmer-friendly policy”.
Besides, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal maintained that he would soon take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Union Ministers of New and Renewable Energy and Environment and Forests to flag up this issue.
Badal made these assertions after inaugurating the two-day stakeholders' consultative conference on policy for utilisation and
management of paddy straw in Punjab jointly organised by the Punjab State Science and Technology Council (PSSTC) and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) at Punjab Bhawan on Friday.
Badal announced that the State Government would soon evolve an economically-viable and farmer-friendly policy “to permanently address the problem of paddy straw burning across the State to protect the environment from pollution hazard on one hand and ensure handsome returns to the farmers on their huge stock of paddy straw by ensuring its optimum utilization for power generation as a renewable source of non-conventional energy”.
Punjab had an abundant stock of biomass especially of paddy straw which could be optimally used for producing power in the state, he added.
Emphasising on a farmer friendly policy, Badal said that this was the way for effective management and disposal of paddy waste in a productive manner to benefit peasantry who were now left with no other option but to burn the paddy straw recklessly, which not only posed a major health hazard due to environment pollution but also resulted in the loss of soil fertility to an amazing extent.
Declaring the issue of paddy straw burning as a national problem, he said that he would soon take up the matter with the Prime Minister and the concerned Union Ministers to bail out the state by sanctioning a project to deal with this problem permanently.
“State alone could not cope up with this problem rather the Centre should come forward to the rescue of Punjab government to tackle this problem on top priority in an efficacious and result-oriented manner,” said Badal.