Farm fires: Farmers want FIRs withdrawn

Jalandhar, December 5

Quoting the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Supreme Court’s instructions that farmers should not be completely held responsible for farm fires, the farmers have demanded the police and the district administration to withdraw FIRs registered against them under Section 188 of the IPC.

Farmers under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), Kadiyan, questioned, if the government has not been able to provide them the compensation and stubble management machines (as directed by the NGT), why criminal cases were being registered against them. Briefing about the cases registered against the farmers, BKU district president Amreek Singh said around 70 farmers have been booked in the region for stubble burning this season and against the NGT guidelines, Punjab Pollution Control Board officials in the district were imposing hefty fines on farmers.

He said, “Every state has been directed to provide machines and equipment to the farmers, so as to ensure that the agricultural residue was stored and managed in an eco-friendly manner, however, no such equipment were provided to the famers booked under Section 188 of the IPC. The machines, including happy seeder, should be provided free of cost to the farmers possessing two acres of land and for the farmers possessing area more than two acres but less than five acres. The cost of machines has been kept at Rs 5,000 and for the land owners having land area more than five acres, the cost of such machines is Rs 15,000”. Hence, he appealed the Deputy Commissioner and the SSP rural that the NGT orders were partially exercised, that too against the farmers. The Agriculture Department should also be held responsible for not adhering to the NGT guidelines.

The farmers warned the administration that if their demands were not accepted, they would intensify their protest from December 25. — TNS