Farmers Movement Archive

Ludhiana: 224 more farm fires seen this year, official says data misleading

The air Ludhiana residents breathed on Thursday continued to remain in ‘poor’ category with PM 2.5 count reaching 262, a major reason for which is attributed to spike in stubble burning incidents. The data provided by Punjab Remote Sensing Centre shows that Ludhiana has witnessed 224 more cases of farm fires as it did last year during the corresponding period. While 4,330 cases were reported in 2020, 2021 has so far seen 4,554 farm fires. In 2019, the figure was 2,532, while 2,481 incidents were logged in 2018. A year before that, 3,239 cases of stubble burning were registered. Daler Singh, a former agriculture department official, said it has been noticed that fire incidents see a rise during the period preceding the election year. “We had witnessed a spurt in farm fires in 2016 (7,697) and similarly, such incidents are on the rise this year as well. It appears that the authorities have been directed to go soft on farmers and not to penalise them for setting stubble on fire. As the state is due to go to polls early next year, the government does not wish to rattle the farmers, who are also agitating against the three farm laws.”In Punjab, the number of FIRs registered in 2019 was 1,737, which fell to 48 in 2020. This year, the number is zero. An official, requesting anonymity, said even last year, the administration had gone easy on farmers as they had begun protesting against the central government. However, a farm union leader said the stubble management has become completely infeasible due to high input cost. “With the rise in diesel prices and other farm machinery items, the in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy straw has become very expensive. Farmers are already under financial stress. If the government wants farmers to handle straw, they must provide ₹5,000 per acre as incentive,” said Jagtar Singh from BKU (Ugrahan).It was on November 1 that the authorities had claimed 37% dip in the stubble burning cases. But in the next 10 days, a record number of crop residue burning incidents were witnessed in the district. According to chief agricultural officer Narinder Singh Benipal, the data is misleading. “It has been noticed that farmers are not setting entire stubble kept in the field on fire. Instead, they are setting afire a small portion of crop residue, which is also being reflected in the fire incidents data,” he said. Meanwhile, amid the reports of hoarding leading to the shortage of DAP fertiliser, Baldev Singh, joint director, agriculture (inputs), visited Ludhiana and assessed its availability. He said reports of tagging of non-essential products by cooperative societies and private dealers were pouring in and warned of action against those involved in such activities.

Hindustan Times

12-11-2021

Chandigarh