Burning issue

Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s pointedly scathing directive last week to the Punjab Chief Secretary to ensure that no other farmer resorts to stubble burning to prepare his fields for the next crop, the noxious practice continues unabated. Apparently, the government has not taken effective enough measures to stop the raging fires. The situation on the ground remains pretty much the same even as such alternative schemes as enabling the agriculturists to opt for Happy Seeders and other tools or monetary incentives for farmers are bandied about. The state machinery must be galvanised to its fullest to perform the various tasks it is entrusted with, including the disbursal of a relief of Rs 100 per quintal of crop residue to the peasants or taking penal action against those setting their fields ablaze in violation of norms. Only then can there be hope for a breather from the poisonous gases defiling the air.

Moved by the plight of crores of people of the smog-filled region gasping for clean air, the apex court had ticked the Chief Secretary off in no uncertain terms for his lame excuse of lack of funds or wherewithal in dealing with the matter forthwith. The reprimand is not unjustified, for the state has been sitting on this tinder-box for too long. It has been lax in preventing the annual torching of fields despite the alarming phenomenon having been red-flagged by concerned environmentalists and medical experts over the past few years. There seems to be no accountability for the havoc that pollution has wreaked on the health and lives of citizens.

As the apex court noted, it is the responsibility of a democratic government, the administration and police forces to quickly firm up and implement a plan that envisages a profitable deal and ambience to the nation’s food providers as also a vigorous environment. Sadly, with little to show beyond vote-garnering hollow sloganeering and empty promises of bettering the lives of farmers, most governments have erred on this score. They have failed both the farmer and the public in lacking the nerve to take the bull by the horns.