Haryana Govt Cracks Down On Stubble Burning, Farmers To Face FIRs And Bans On Crop Sales In Mandis — Details

Deputy Director of the Agriculture Department, Dr. Babu Lal, confirmed the formation of teams that go to villages and help the farmers. He also said the team is running awareness campaigns.

The Haryana government directed its officials to register an FIR against the farmers who burn stubble and make a Red in their farm records, preventing them from selling their crops in Mandis via the e-Kharid portal for the next two seasons.

In response, Dr. Babu Lal, Deputy Director, Agriculture Department told ANI, "If we talk about Kaithal district, we have formed teams for this, there are block level teams as well as village level teams. They go to villages and help the farmers. Apart from this, our mobile van is also running which is running awareness campaigns and as far as the cases are concerned, till now 97 cases have come in the Kaithal district."

Requesting the farmers to avoid burning stubble and opting for various government schemes, Haryana Minister Mahipal Dhanda said, "...I would like to request the farmers who are practising stubble burning that please don't do this...There are several schemes made by the government for stubble-burning, take benefits of that and choose them...because this will be a problem for everyone...When there is pollution (due to stubble burning), people having breathing issues will suffer from this."

Haryana Minister Dr. Arvind Sharma also urged farmers to take advantage of the government schemes aimed at curbing stubble burning. He added that the government holds no grievances against the farmers, as it respects them.

"I tell the farmers of the state that the government has made many schemes for the system (stubble burning). You should take advantage of those schemes, the farmer will also get financial benefits from them, so take advantage of those schemes instead of burning the stubble. There is no conflict between the government and the farmers. The government respects the farmers, it has always done work for the farmers, " he added.

Supreme Court On Stubble Burning

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court summoned the Chief Secretaries of the Punjab and Haryana governments and questioned them why legal action against stubble burning in the states has not been taken yet.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Augustine George Masih lashed out noting that not a single prosecution had taken place against stubble burning incidents in both the states. "Why states are shying of prosecuting people for stubble burning and letting go of people with nominal fine," questioned the bench, expressing strong disapproval over the insufficient legal action being taken, news agency ANI reported.

The Supreme Court, pointing out that the Haryana government was only issuing nominal fines against those engaging in stubble burning stated, "You are just taking a nominal fine only. ISRO is telling you location where fire was taking place and you say that you do not find anything. 191 cases of breach and only nominal fine taken. Absolute defiance of direction by Commission under Section 12 of Commission of Air Quality Management in NCT region Act 2021. Complete defiance by Haryana."

The development came while the apex court was hearing a case conerning air pollution in Delhi.