Penalties! But what about compensation, ask farmers

FARIDKOT: Following the imposition of penalties on some farmers of Kauni village in Faridkot for the alleged offence of stubble burning, members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) have been sitting on a protest dharna in front of the tehsil office in Sadiq town of Faridkot for the past three days.

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 15

Following the imposition of penalties on some farmers of Kauni village in Faridkot for the alleged offence of stubble burning, members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) have been sitting on a protest dharna in front of the tehsil office in Sadiq town of Faridkot for the past three days.

Accusing the state government of invoking one part of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders (imposition of penalty for stubble burning) and ignoring the second part of the directions (regarding grant of compensation for management of stubble), the farmers threatened that they would burn stubble until the state government compensates them for the losses.

The NGT has fixed the environment penalty amount per incident of crop burning to be paid by small land owners having less than 2 acres of land at Rs 2,500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres at Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres at Rs 15,000.

While the NGT has asked the state government to compensate the farmers and provide them machinery to make proper disposal of stubble, the state government’s initiatives are just eyewash as neither the farmers are being compensated nor the machines have been provided as per the NGT directions, rued farmers.

But the state government is harsh enough in imposing penalties on the farmers, alleged the protesting farmers on Monday.

In the absence of any compensation, the farmers cannot be asked to take care of the environment by putting them under severe financial stress, the protesters said.

“If we don’t burn stubble, besides increasing input costs, it will also cause delay in the sowing of wheat which may lead to fall in the total yield, thus causing financial loss to the farmers who are already reeling under crisis,” said Bohar Singh, district president of the BKU (Ekta Sidhupur).

Sources revealed that due to delayed sowing of paddy saplings, starting from June 20, most of high yield varieties of the paddy take 150—160 days for maturing and ripening.

After harvesting the paddy crop, waiting for the stubble to dissolve in the field and then preparing the field for wheat sowing is not practicable as it will cause delay in the sowing and lead to loss in its yield, said the farmers.

Moreover, a large number of small farmers are taking the land on lease. After paying more than Rs 50,000 per acre per year as lease money, these lessees cannot afford to take chance with any loss in the yield, the protesters said.

Invoking NGT order partially

Accusing the state government of invoking one part of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders (imposition of penalty for stubble burning) and ignoring the second part of the directions (regarding grant of compensation for management of stubble), the farmers threatened that they would burn stubble until the state government compensates them for the losses.
The NGT has fixed the environment penalty amount per incident of crop burning to be paid by small land owners having less than 2 acres of land at Rs 2,500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres at Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres at Rs 15,000.