No let-up in farm fires as admn fails to keep vigil

Amritsar, May 15

As the administration and politicians are busy with the Lok Sabha elections, farmers here are able to burn crop residues without any checks or worries of visits by the government teams, fines or FIRs for causing air pollution.

As per the report of the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, 653 farm fire incidents have been reported in the district so far.

Yet, the district administration has not even penalised a single farmer as the entire government machinery seems to be engaged in preparations for polling on June 1.

Meanwhile, 757 farm fire incidents have been reported in the neighbouring Tarn Taran district so far, but no action has been taken there either.

Amritsar reported a total of 114 farm fire incidents on Wednesday while Tarn Taran district reported 86 farm fires.

Both the districts collectively reported 38 per cent of the 529 farm fire incidents in the state on Tuesday. In Amritsar, 311 fire incidents were reported on May 13 and 115 on May 14.

With 1,410 farm fires reported in this season so far, both the districts have accounted for nearly 17 per cent of the total 8,357 farm fire incidents in Punjab this season. Residents and activists have criticised politicians for ignoring the concerning problem of air pollution caused due to farm fires in view of the elections.

“Perhaps environment is an issue that is raised when it is all quiet on the political front. Presently, as politicians from across parties are busy campaigning for the Lok Sabha poll, they are not going to take any chances by taking any action against the erring farmers,” said a local resident, Satpal Singh.

The residents rued that the indifference of the government towards the issue only shows their alleged lack of commitment to curb the practice of burning crop residue.