Burning of waste at club inside Company Bagh irks visitors

Amritsar, February 10

Even as the administration is making all-out efforts to check the burning of crop residue in fields as the Deputy Commissioner himself is visiting villages and exhorting farmers to shun the practice, the burning of plant residue in public parks in the city has been witnessed frequently.

One such fire was spotted at Lumsden Club inside the Company Bagh here where plant waste as dry grass and leaves were set on fire. Ideally these should be put in a compost pit to let them decompose. Advocate Kuljit Singh Malawali said, “I visited the Bagh on Thursday at around 12 pm and found that the fire had caused massive smoke.” He said the timing of burning the plant residue is deliberately chosen at noon to avoid detection.

Other visitors to the Bagh too reported that burning of plant waste has become a routine affair. A similar practice is also used to get rid of the plant waste at various other parks. “It is good that the district administration is keen to check the practice of burning of crop residue. But why should those burning plant waste and garbage heaps be spared,” said Joginder Singh, another resident. Joginder Singh said senior officials of the administration must issue strict orders to the three illegal private clubs inside the Company Bagh and make them refrain from burning plant waste.

The efforts of the district administration to check farm fires have yielded partial results this year as no fire incident was reported from a total of 280 villages. With complete check of crop residue burning on mind, senior district officials, including Deputy Commissioner Ghansham Thori, had recently visited rural areas to interact with farmers and know about the reasons why they are still sticking to burning of waste when machines are available. The efforts of the administration need to be appreciated, but at the same time those causing air pollution should punished.