Stubble-burning goes on unabated

Tribune News Service

With the paddy procurement season on, stubble- burning has again started causing major environmental hazard in the district.

However, awareness and education drives besides other initiatives taken by the administration have so far failed to make any major impact. In the absence of any effective and stringent measures, crop residue management has also taken a backseat in Ambala.

To curb the menace in the coming days, the district administration had launched an awareness and education drive besides setting up mobile parties to spread the awareness of crop residue management among farmers. 

“The idea is to help prevent pollution not only in the district but in NCR also, which faces major problem due to the menace,” a senior officer said. Besides, the district administration has also launched an awareness fortnight. 

He said the mobile parties have been asked to closely monitor those areas, where stubble-burning cases had come up during the previous years. The aim of mobile parties will be to conduct maximum awareness among farmers against the burning of crop residue.

A visit to different parts of the district revealed that stubble-burning was continuing without any check and farmers seemed least bothered about the environment hazards it was causing.

“We are helpless. We have no other effective method except burning the crop residue,” claimed Tarlochan Singh, a farmer in Majri village. Raj Singh, another farmer in Kesari village, said the administration talks big, but when it comes to compensating farmers for their losses, nobody comes to their rescue.