Over 1K farmers fined for burning paddy stubble

Amritsar, November 20

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has fined 1,182 farmers for burning paddy stubble this season. Last year, the count was 998 during the same session.

As per the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the PPCB charges Environmental Compensation (EC), which is a fine, from violators. It ranges between Rs2,500 and Rs15,000.

Sukhdev Singh, SDO, PPCB, said an amount of over Rs8 lakh as EC was imposed on the violators and of it, an amount of Rs3.42 lakh was recovered.

As many as 489 places were raided by 30 teams constituted by the district administration. Each team has three officials from the Revenue and Agriculture Department, besides a policeman.

The Punjab Remote Sensing Center, Ludhiana, provides daily detail of stubble burning incidents in villages to the PPPCB. The centre receives the information from the satellite. On this basis, teams are dispatched to the location.

The SDO said this year, the maximum number of stubble fire cases was registered from the Baba Bakala area.

Officials said since the belt was popular for growing vegetables, stubble burning immediately prepared the land for sowing. It facilitated the crop pattern of rice, wheat and vegetable thrice a year, they added. — TNS