New Delhi: Ahead of rising smog in the national capital and other regions of north India, the Punjab government has launched a mass campaign to sensitise farmers on paddy straw burning. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann while chairing a meeting with the Administrative Secretaries of the state government here at his office in Chandigarh said that the farmers must be sensitised for not burning the paddy straw.
He said that burning of paddy straw causes a huge threat to human life besides creating environmental hazards. Mann also said that efforts need to be made for checking the practice of stubble at all costs by making the farmers aware of its ill effects.
During the meeting, the CM also emphasised on the need for smooth and hassle free procurement and lifting of the paddy during the ongoing procurement season, from the grain markets across the state. He asked to make sure that food grains are procured without any delay and added that the procurement process must be completed without any sort of inconvenience to the farmers.
Around the month of October and November, Delhi and adjacent regions and other parts of north India engulfs in smog resulting from stubble burning. The Air Quality Index in Delhi measured at 266 today falling under poor category with smog shrouding various parts of the city.
According to a report by the news agency IANS, farmers of Punjab and Haryana have started setting their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue of paddy so that the field is ready for the next crop, mainly wheat.
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Punjab annually generates 20 million tonnes of paddy straw and this is normally set on fire to quickly clear the fields for the next crop, resulting in choking of the National Capital Region (NCR) in October and November, as per a report by the news agency.
As per the state agriculture department, the estimated waste generation from paddy harvesting in Haryana is around 3.5 million tonnes, with the crop mainly produced in Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Yamunanagar and Panipat districts., it added.