250 farmers issued warning notice for burning stubble in Palwal

Tribune News Service
Palwal, October 7

The local administration has issued warning notice to 250 farmers in the district in order to curb stubble burning during the harvest of the paddy crop.

Last year, over 200 complaints were received and the authorities had issued challans, imposing a penalty of about Rs 3 lakh besides registering FIRs against 47 persons for burning stubble.

In the notices served by the SDM, Hodal subdivision, the farmers have been warned of legal action if paddy stubble is burnt in the fields this season in violation of the ban.

Revealing that only those farmers, who have a history of burning stubble in the past few years, have been served notices under Section 107 and 150 of the CrPC, a senior official said that this has been done to stop them in indulging in this practice this time.

According to Agriculture Department sources, at least three new cases of stubble burning have already surfaced in the district in the past week.

Admitting that warning notices have been served to farmers, Kuldeep Singh, an official of the Agriculture Department here, said challan with a penalty Rs 2,500 per hectare would also be issued against the offenders detected recently.

“Farmers served notices will have to submit a declaration that they will not burn stubble this year to escape legal action,” he said.

Around 120 challans against stubble burning had been issued in October and November last year in which a penalty of Rs 2.95 lakh was imposed on the defaulters.

Six farmers had been booked under Section 188 in April for burning wheat stubble in their fields here. Besides the suspension of two sarpanches, 47 FIRs had been registered last year. Section 144 of the IPC had also been imposed by the district magistrate.