Farm fires continue unabated, Moga admn cites LS elections

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, May 21

The wheat harvesting season has ended in Moga district, but stubble-burning is still going on unabated.

On Tuesday, a thick cloud of smoke coming from burning fields disrupted the traffic flow on the Moga-Barnala highway, causing inconvenience to commuters.

Hundreds of acres of wheat fields have been put on fire in the district during the past couple of weeks. However, the district administration officials have not registered even a single case under the preventive laws for stubble-burning. The authorities, on the other hand, claim that they were busy conducting the Lok Sabha elections. Thus the farmers took advantage of the undue relaxation granted to them by the authorities to please their political masters who did not want to take any risk during the elections, which could have resulted in loss of precious votes.

Moreover, it was due to the elections that Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced the transplantation of paddy seedlings one week ahead of the scheduled date of June 20, a notification of which was already issued by the government.

Sources close to the CM, who also holds the portfolio of Agriculture Department, said Capt Amarinder Singh had asked the district magistrates not to take action against farmers due to the ensuing Lok Sabha elections because he didn’t want to annoy them.

Therefore, the farmers continued to burn the leftover straw to prepare their fields for planting paddy crop even when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had asked the state to stop the farmers from doing so.

As per the estimates, about 40 million tonnes of crop waste — 23 million tonnes from paddy and 17 million tonnes from wheat — is generated in Punjab every year.

A recent study of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, has pointed out that the total crop residue (paddy and wheat) contains 6 million tonnes of carbon that on burning produces 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

While most of the wheat straw is used as dry fodder for cattle, the remaining is set on fire in the fields.

Notably, the NGT has sought a status report from the Punjab Government on the action taken to curb stubble-burning during the current season. The state is yet to reply in this regard, sources said.

The CM, on the other hand, has sought compensation from the Centre for farmers as the state is not in a position to buy the equipment and machinery to scientifically manage the crop residue.

Meanwhile, there are reports of farm fires from other districts too.

State yet to give status report to NGT

• The NGT has sought a status report from the Punjab Government on the action taken to curb stubble-burning during the current season. The state is yet to reply. 
• The CM has sought compensation from the Centre for farmers as the state is not in a position to buy the equipment and machinery to scientifically manage crop residue.