Stubble Management and Farmers – uttamhindu.com

In view of the increasing incidents of stubble burning in Punjab, the Supreme Court of the country commented that the Punjab government can learn from the efforts made by the Haryana government. Regarding the comments made by the Supreme Court, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that ‘Today the Supreme Court has made it completely clear who is actually guilty in the Parali case.’ The Chief Minister also thanked the farmers for successfully completing this work. He said that the Haryana government took the problem of stubble burning seriously and with the cooperation of farmers has achieved considerable success in reducing the incidents of stubble burning.

CM said that pollution is an important health issue and there should be no politics on it. We all need to work together to solve this problem. But sadly, some political parties and governments of neighboring states are doing politics on this. Khattar said that the tireless efforts being made by the government to curb stubble burning and actively reduce the incidents of fire have resulted in a steady decline in the incidents of stubble burning in Haryana as compared to previous years, while the incidents of stubble burning have increased in Punjab. There are more incidents. Manohar Lal said that the continuously decreasing incidents of stubble burning in the state prove that the efforts of the Haryana government to make farmers aware about crop residue management have proved successful on the ground. The state government is making all out efforts to achieve the target of zero-burning of stubble. Haryana Government is not only running an awareness campaign regarding not burning stubble, but Haryana Government has also made a provision of incentive amount of Rs 1000 per acre for not burning stubble and proper management of stubble. The Agriculture Department is also providing various machines and equipment to the farmers for stubble management.

The Supreme Court has asked the Punjab government to disclose the amount of fine collected for stubble burning in its next appearance, and also said that there should be no politics on this issue. There should be no blaming each other or comparing one with the other. The Center and the State should forget politics and look for a long-term solution. These comments, suggestions and orders were given by the bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia during the hearing on the matter of air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said where are the farmers against whom the order is being given? Who is appearing on behalf of the farmers? Farmers are villains, but they are not present here. There must be some reason due to which they are doing this. The Attorney General said that the farmers are not coming here intentionally. The state government will answer why they are doing this. Justice Dhulia said that the state is not responding to this. Justice Kaul said, he believes that the bottom line of all this is money. Farmers want either to be given full money to deal with stubble or else they will not listen to anyone. A lawyer said that farmers do not understand the matter. It was also said that MSP is a sensitive issue. Justice Kaul expressed concern over the situation in Punjab and said that the land in Punjab is drying up. The water beneath Punjab is drying up. Farmers have to understand this. Justice Kaul asked the Attorney General to consider the broader aspect. Instead of paddy, some alternative crop should be considered.

According to the report submitted by the Central Government on the orders of the Supreme Court, more than 88 percent of the incidents of stubble burning so far have occurred in Punjab alone. Uttar Pradesh has now replaced Haryana at the second position in stubble burning. This time till November 17, 2,281 cases of stubble burning have been reported. The Center has said in its report that this attitude of the states is despite the fact that till now they have been provided assistance of about Rs. 4 thousand crores to deal with this problem. Of these, approximately Rs 3,333 crore was given for the purchase of stubble destroying machines. About 2.73 lakh machines have been purchased from them so far. Maximum of about 1.28 lakh machines have been purchased in Punjab. While about 88 thousand machines have been purchased in Haryana, about 68 thousand in Uttar Pradesh and about 247 machines have been purchased in Delhi. An amount of Rs 431 crore given for the purchase of machines is still left with these states. Despite this, the attitude of the states towards stopping stubble burning is not good.

State governments seem helpless in front of farmer organizations regarding stubble management. The increasing cases of stubble burning are turning farmers from heroes to villains. This is suicidal for the farmers. If the Supreme Court orders in future not to buy MSP crops next year from the farmers who burn stubble, then how much harm can it cause to the farmers? Understanding this, farmers should cooperate with the state governments. Today the state governments are standing in the dock regarding stubble management. If farmers do not stop burning stubble, they will stand in the dock tomorrow. Farmers are our heroes but the path on which they are walking in matters of stubble management is only taking them from heroes to villains. Farmers should introspect on stubble management. This is the need of the hour.