Stubble burning: Arrests of farmers flayed

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 10

Farmer unions have condemned FIRs and arrests of farmers who burnt paddy stubble in the past few days.

Members of the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee said they demand that the cases filed against the farmers should be withdrawn.

“Why alone the farmers are being blamed for the menace? We do not get the cost for our produce as mentioned in the Swaminathan report,” Satnam Sahni, spokesperson for the committee said.

“A state-level protest will be held soon against the arrests of the farmers,” he said, adding that they condemn such behaviour with the farmers.

“Society must come forward to help us,” he said.

Notably, several cases have been registered in the state against the farmers for burning stubble. Besides, but there have been some arrests too.

On November 5, as many as 11 cases were registered against farmers for burning stubble in Nawanshahr. Of the 11 cases, three were reported from Balachaur, three from Behram, two from Rahon, and one from Sadar Banga, Sadar Nawanshahr and Aur each. The cases were registered under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC.

The burning of stubble has remained a big issue since long in the state. The farmers during this period indulge in the practice as they say they had no other means to get rid of the menace.

Davinder Singh, another farmer from Nawanshahr, said farmers were always at the receiving end. “Already we are not getting payments for our sugarcane crops, for which we have been fighting for long. Be it any issue, we suffer the most. We demand help from both Central and state governments,” he said. Notably, after the intervention of the Supreme Court in the matter of stubble burning and inefficiency of the government in tackling the menace, the registration of cases against those who had been indulging in such acts has hastened.

While the Delhi Government has been blaming crop residue burning in neighbouring states for the toxic haze over Delhi, farmers expressed helplessness and said they did not have any viable alternative to stubble burning.