The Punjab and Delhi governments were directed to take action against burning agricultural trash by the Supreme Court, which heard arguments over air pollution in Delhi.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court harshly criticized the Punjab government for stubble burning, which is one of the causes of the air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The court also noted that farmers are being portrayed as villains because they are not given a hearing in court.
The Punjab government’s record, according to the Supreme Court, indicates that state house officers had 8,481 meetings with farmers and farm leaders to persuade them not to burn paddy straws. Additionally, it noted in its order that farm fires are still on the rise.
Due to stubble burning, 984 FIRs have been filed against landowners. The top court stated that ₹18 lakh of the more than ₹2 crore in environmental compensation that has been mandated has been retrieved.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and S Dhulia, hearing a plethora of petitions regarding the hazardous air across the nation’s capital, directed the Punjab and Delhi governments to take action against the burning of agricultural waste, which exacerbates Delhi’s air pollution problem.
Why does the Punjab government not make the crop residue disposal process completely free? The farmer only needs to fire a matchstick to burn it. For farmers, machinery for managing crop residue is not everything. The Supreme Court stated that even if the machine is given away for free, there are costs associated with diesel, labor, etc. and questioned why Punjab could not pay for these costs and still make use of the byproduct.
(Image Source : English Jagran)
The Supreme Court stated that the state of Punjab should take inspiration from the way the state of Haryana administers financial incentives.
The court also noted that Punjab’s soil is gradually drying up due to the declining water table. The highest court stated that everything else will be impacted if the land runs out. It informed the Punjab administration that farmers needed to be made aware of the repercussions of cultivating paddy anywhere.
Attorney General R Venkatramani was also instructed by the court to look into ways to discourage paddy and promote alternative crops.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court further mandated that a committee investigate the possibility of preventing rice cultivation. It stated that the long-term effects might be severe and that everyone involved needed to work together to find a way to encourage switching to the alternative crop.
In the midst of the political blame game over air pollution, the Supreme Court noted that state and federal governments needed to put politics aside and work out how to solve this problem.
It claimed that if the blame game goes on, water will vanish and land will run dry.
Punjab records 634 new incidents of farm fires.
Punjab reported 634 farm fires on Monday, with farmers in several regions still setting rice straw on fire in spite of police efforts to keep stubble burning from happening. Since November 8, the Punjab Police said it has filed 1,084 FIRs against negligent farmers and fined them ₹1.87 crore in 7,990 cases.
According to Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla, Punjab saw 634 farm fires—the lowest since Diwali—as a result of the police’s ongoing efforts to stop stubble burning. Shukla has been assigned as the police’s nodal officer to monitor stubble burning.
