NASA report: Steep decline in farm fires across Haryana
Chandigarh, November 11
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shown a decline in farm fire incidents in Haryana.
Air quality improves in Ambala, Karnal
Ambala: The air quality in various districts, including Ambala, Kurukshetra, and Karnal districts showed improvement on Friday. In Ambala, the air quality was recorded as “moderate” with the air quality index recording the average particulate matter (PM) 2.5 at 167, while Kurukshetra (287), Kaithal (284), Karnal (281), Panipat (211) districts remained under the “poor” category. TNS
The press note issued by the government said recent satellite images of stubble burning and arson incidents in northern India issued by NASA clearly showed that in the past 24 hours, farm fire incidents in Haryana had come down even further, while the live images of stubble burning could be seen in three-fourths of the area of the neighbouring state, Punjab.
Divulging more details in this regard, an official spokesperson said as per the data released for the past 24 hours, a very few incidents of stubble burning had been reported in Haryana. This clearly highlighted the fact that the government’s stubble management programme had been a success.
The government’s data also showed the incidents of stubble burning in Haryana had come down by 25 per cent this year while in Punjab these incidents had increased by 20 per cent, said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said not only had the state government launched an awareness campaign for farmers to make them aware of the ill-effects of stubble burning, but a provision of Rs 1,000 per acre incentive had been made for those not burning stubble and for its proper management.
Besides this, Rs 50 per quintal incentive amount and subsidy on the straw management equipment are also given to the farmers for making stubble bales. The farmers are being given a 50 per cent subsidy on equipment for crop residue management and an 80 per cent subsidy on custom hiring centres. The spokesperson said if any farmer took the stubble bales to the Ethanol Plant set up in Karnal and Panipat, he was given an incentive of Rs 2,000 per acre.
Furthermore, if he brought the stubble to gaushalas, then an incentive of Rs 1,500 was given to him. Not only this, the government also gave up to Rs 10 lakh to the panchayat for not burning stubble in the red zone area. Last year, the government made a provision of Rs 216 crore for stubble management, added the spokesperson. The spokesperson said the government had given more than 72,000 machines to the farmers for the crop residue management. The government had set a target of taking this to 80,000 this year so that farmers could manage maximum crop residues at the ground level.
Besides this, in the state itself, 24 types of industries had given consent to the government to buy stubble, under which command areas would be opened in every district and stubble be procured through those command area centres.
The spokesperson said the state had also created a new portal for this, on which the information of contractors and industries who bought stubble would be available and the farmer who wanted to sell the stubble could contact them directly through the portal. Last year, about 1.75 lakh tonnes of stubble was procured by the biogas plant in Haryana.
