Paddy season set to begin, Palwal administration gears up to check farm fires

Bijendra Ahlawat

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Palwal, September 17

With paddy harvesting set to begin, the district authorities have announced a drive to curb incidents of stubble-burning, claimed to be one of the main causes for the generation of the bad quality of air in the region.

“Though a total of 96 villages where paddy is grown will be on the radar, the authorities will give special attention to 18 villages included in the “red” and “yellow” zones respectively,” said an official of the Agriculture Department here.

He said “red” and “yellow” zones were those from where a majority of the incidents of stubble burning were reported. While three villages of Baswa, Biduki and Khambi had been categorised to be in the “red zone”, 15 villages, identified as Mandkol, Alawalpur, Badram, Janoli, Khajurka, Kithwari, Rasulpur Asawata, Chajjunagar (Palwal block) Sondh and Sewali of Hodal Block and Hassanpur, Pinghor and Raidaska villages of Hassanpur block, were in the “yellow” zone.

“Besides keeping a check through the images collected by the Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), a nodal agency of the Citizen Resources Information Department, Haryana, for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS), physical patrolling will be carried out 24X7 by teams the agriculture, police and panchayat departments to check the menace,” said Dr Pawan Sharma, Deputy Director, Agriculture (DDA).

Adding that the teams might have to halt in villages, he said monitoring would be done on a daily basis by a committee headed by the DC. He said as paddy harvesting was expected to start within a week and continue till October-end, swift action would be taken against the violations, which include the issuing of challans and registration of FIRs.

The district has a total of 25,000 hectares of area under paddy, which includes 22,000 acres under basmati and 3,000 hectares under the non-basmati variety of the crop.

Around 78 cases of stubble burning had been reported in the district last year in which a penalty of Rs 2.02 lakh was imposed, along with the lodging of four FIRs. Over 110 and 210 incidents were recorded in the district in 2020 and 2019, respectively, according to officials.

“As a violation invites a fine of Rs 2,500 for each acre, an amount of Rs 1,000 per acre is also given to those farmers who adopt proper measures for the proper disposal of the stubble,” said the DDA.

24X7 surveillance

• 96 villages where paddy is grown to be on the radar
• Special focus on 18 villages included in ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ zones
• Agriculture, police, panchayat depts and remote-sensing teams to be on job