Chandigarh: Farmer bodies in Punjab on Thursday strongly condemned the Centre's move to raise fines for stubble burning and asked why the government was not providing crop residue management machinery to them to check farm fires. The Centre has doubled the fine for farmers burning crop residue in view of the deteriorating air quality in the Delhi-NCR region, with the penalty going up to Rs 30,000 for those with more than five acres of farmland.
According to a notification published on Wednesday following the Supreme Court's tough stance on the issue, farmers with less than two acres of land will now have to pay environmental compensation of Rs 5,000, up from Rs 2,500. And those with land between two and five acres will be fined Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 5,000. Reacting to the union government's move, farmers' unions pointed out that farmers never want to set the crop residue on fire but they are forced to do so for want of required machinery.
They also said why farmers are always being "targeted" for pollution, asking the government about any action taken against the industry for polluting the environment. Punjab has reported 5,041 farm fires between September 15 and November 6, registering more than a 70 per cent decline in such cases as compared to the corresponding period last year. Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan slammed the Centre for its "anti-farmer" move of increasing fines on farmers.
"We strongly condemn this decision," Kokrikalan told PTI. He said the Union government was trying to increase pressure on farmers through such "tactics.""Those farmers who have crop residue management machinery did not burn stubble at all," he pointed out. Farmers are compelled to set the paddy straw on fire as they do not have the required machinery, he said."They do not have any option, that is they burn it," he said.
Slamming the Centre for doubling the fine, Kokrikalan said, "Even if they raise it by 10 times, we will not pay it."Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the Centre's move to hike fine is highly condemnable. He said only 30 per cent of crop residue management machinery has been provided to farmers. Pandher said farmers were always blamed for air pollution due to stubble burning. Whereas the industry contributes 51 per cent to air pollution and the mode of transport contributes 25 per cent, he said.
"Whenever air pollution comes up, only farmers come to mind and they are blamed for it," he said. By penalising farmers, issues will not be resolved, he said. "We will oppose this move," he said. Pandher said the Centre was not paying any attention towards the shortage of DAP fertilizer. Bharti Kisan Union (Qadian) Harmeet Singh said small and poor farmers cannot afford to buy crop residue management machines and urged the government to ensure they should reach every farmer.
Raising the penalty is not a solution to this issue, he said. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi after harvesting of the paddy crop in October and November. Crop residue management machinery like super seeder, smart seeder, happy seeder, paddy straw chopper, shredder, mulcher, hydraulic reversible mould board plough and zero till drill under the in-situ (mixing crop residue in fields) management method and baler and rake under the ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management method are made available on subsidy.
Farmers have been seeking financial incentives to manage paddy stubble, saying that it is not financially viable for small cultivators to buy crop residue management machinery to clear their fields. As the window for the Rabi crop-- wheat-- is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop. Punjab recorded a total of 36,663 farm fires in 2023, registering a 26 per cent drop in such incidents.
The state recorded 49,922 fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018 with many districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar witnessing a large number of stubble-burning incidents.
