Stubble-burning cases dip by 68% in Karnal district

Tribune News Service

Parveen Arora

Karnal, November 16

Efforts made by the district administration seem to have yielded results as Karnal district, which, as per officials, has the largest paddy harvesting area of around 4.10 lakh acres, recorded around 68 per cent fall in stubble-burning cases so far this year in comparison to the corresponding period last year. So far, it has witnessed 296 cases, while last year, there were 933 such cases till November 16. This despite the fact that the district administration did not register any FIR against farmers. It has, however, imposed a fine of Rs 5.20 lakh on farmers for burning stubble.

As per the authorities, the harvesting of paddy has been completed in most of the areas of the district.

“Our focus was on making the farmers aware. Without wasting any time, we started work on controlling stubble-burning at the time of paddy transplantation. We had chalked a micro-level plan to curb the menace, under which we had identified the violators of the previous years and show-cause notices were served on them. They were made aware of the ill-effects of stubble burning. The repeated offenders submitted affidavits, promising they would not burn crop residue. We have linked them with the nearby groups of farmers who were using in-situ and ex-situ machinery for stubble management,” said Anish Yadav, Deputy Commissioner.

Monitoring committees at the village, block, sub-division and district levels involving officials of various departments helped in checking the menace to a great extent, said the DC.

“Red and yellow zones were identified based on the farm fires recorded in previous years. Joint efforts made by different departments helped a lot in spreading awareness among farmers. The Agriculture Department also held several mega awareness camps in different locations of the district, where officials showcased the machinery used for the management of stubble,” said Aditya Dabas, Deputy Director, Agriculture .

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