Supporting the farming community in its protest against the powers-that-be on the issue of stubble burning, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday submitted the memorandums to the concerned Deputy Commissioners across Punjab.
AAP MlAs and other office bearers register their protest against the “undue harassment of farmers by the state government in the name of stubble burning”.
“Before registering cases against farmers, the government must fulfil its own duty as directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The government itself has failed to perform its duty and now forcing farmers to save its own skin,” said AAP’s Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann, co-president Aman Arora and the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Singh Khaira, in a joint statement.
“As per the NGT orders, para 14 clause ‘C’ clearly states that harvesting, transportation and proper utilization of the crop residue is the primary responsibility of state government. In case, the government is not able to do so, it has to pay the compensation to the farmers as per the land holding,” pointed the leaders.
Clause ‘H’ of the same order stated that the state will provide machines, mechanism and equipment to the farmers for the purpose of destroying agricultural residue, they said while demanding proper arrangements to remove paddy stubble from the fields of farmers or give them sufficient financial help as per NGT directions and immediately stop punitive action against farmers for burning stubble in the fields.
AAP leaders, in the memorandum, demanded that the Capt Amarinder Singh government should comply with NGT directions on its part and provide top priority to remove the paddy stubble from the fields to save the environment.
They strongly criticized the government for failing to take any concrete step in time and now when farmers are left with no option other than burning stubble in fields, government machinery was unnecessarily harassing them by issuing notices of punitive action.
AAP leaders said that the farmers of state were already disappointed from the backtracking of Capt Amarinder government from the promise of complete loan waiver promise made during elections and now the government had been bent upon to punish without any fault.
Maintaining that the party was concerned about depleting environment condition due to toxics caused by smoke, AAP leader said that it should not be an excuse to harass the already indebted farmers of the state