When, how, who will pay us, ask farmers

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ambala, November 13

“When, how and who will pay us,” ask a majority of small and marginal farmers in Ambala on the state government’s cash incentive offer for not burning crop residue in Haryana.

Two days after Haryana decided to provide Rs 1,000 per acre operational charges for in situ and ex situ crop residue management, besides providing support of Rs 100 per quintal to small and marginal farmers who have not burned stubble in their fields, most of the farmers owning up to 5 acres of land in the district on Wednesday remained unsure of the implementation of the government offer.

“We are unsure,” says Surjit Singh of Mullana, when asked why he was burning stubble when the government had offered cash incentive for not doing it.

Atma Singh of Nanheri, who was the least bothered about action by the enforcement agencies against the stubble burning practice, which is seen as a major cause for the spike in pollution levels in the northern states, asked: “For how long shall I wait to clear my fields of the paddy residue?”

“If we keep waiting for the government incentive, we will end up missing our deadline for sowing wheat crop and in the process, we will be the losers,” said Kartar Singh of Dhanaura.

Balkar Singh, who cultivates the 3 acres he has taken on contract in Dulyani, said he could not afford any delay in getting his fields cleared of stubble before sowing the next crop.

“This is all a gimmick... we have been cheated by successive regimes and it is another bid to delay our wheat sowing,” asserted Manohar Singh of Kalpi.

Even as the government claimed to have deputed nodal officers across Haryana to ensure that farmers do not burn the crop residue, a visit to several villages in Ambala revealed that farm fires were rampant and were continuing unabated despite the “carrot-and-stick” policy.

Till Wednesday, 22 habitual offenders were booked under Section 188 of the IPC while 83 errant farmers were fined 2.2 lakh in the district. As many as nine peasants in Mullana were fined Rs 2,500 each for defying the SC ban on farm fires on Wednesday.

With no respite from burning of crop residue, the air quality in Ambala on Wednesday remained “poor” at 298 while it reached the “very poor” category at 332 on Tuesday evening.