Without financial help, farmers adamant on burning stubble

Tribune News Service

Parvesh Sharma

Sangrur, September 16

Seeing no financial help coming from the state government for managing paddy stubble, farmers have announced that they would stick to burning it. They said meetings would be held soon to form committees to tackle government officials in case of “harassment” of growers during the upcoming paddy harvesting season.

“How will the farmers who are already under debt spend from their pocket to manage huge quantities of farm waste?” questioned farmer Gamdoor Singh.

4 firms dealing in straw mgmt machinery blacklisted

• Chandigarh: The state government has blacklisted four stubble management machinery companies in Malwa.
• These companies were indulging in bogus selling of machines meant for in situ stubble management.
• Two firms in Faridkot, one in Sadiq and one in Muktsar were allegedly affixing different serial nos. on one machine to show that these were sold to different farmers.
• They were then claiming subsidy for the number of machines that they showed in the records as sold.
• A senior officer of the Agriculture Department said they had now made it mandatory for laser cutting of serial numbers of machines on the body of the machine itself. TNS

“By burning paddy stubble, farmers are the first ones to inhale the poisonous smoke. So we do not want to burn it, but we have no choice. If the government fails to give any help, we will continue to burn it and also gherao officials if they try to harass farmers,” said Rinku Moonak, BKU Ugrahan leader from Moonak block of Sangrur.

Sangrur Chief Agriculture Officer Harbans Singh said, “We are organising special camps and offering all possible help. Farmers should understand that these fires cause irreparable damage to land.”

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