243 officials to keep tab on stubble burning in district

Jalandhar, September 6

In a series of measures to check stubble burning in the upcoming kharif season, the district administration has appointed 189 nodal officers and 54 cluster co-ordinators in Jalandhar district to control the menace.

Varinder Pal Singh Bajwa, Additional Deputy Commissioner (RD), while presiding over a meeting of the district environment committee, said the administration had appointed 243 officers to prevent stubble burning incidents. He said that these officers had to share daily action taken reports through a mobile application called the ATR (Action Taken Report) developed by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) after physical verification of the stubble burning incidents.

He said that the PRSC would send them latitude and longitude of the location where stubble was burnt.

Bajwa said that the PPCB had already identified stubble burning hotspots and shared their details with departments concerned. He said as per details, officers need to focus on Shahkot, Phillaur and Nakodar villages. He said that the SDMs of sub-divisions concerned would closely monitor the functioning of nodal officers and cluster coordinators.

Further, the ADC also asked officials of the Agriculture Department and the PPCB to form joint teams to ensure that all brick kilns mandatorily used 20 per cent paddy stubble as fuel.

Moreover, he told the municipal corporation and councils to ensure that treated water was used for sprinkling and irrigation purposes. He also reviewed the functioning of the solid waste management plant, including door-to-door garbage collection and segregation, and other activities.

Prominent amongst those present on the occasion include Joint Municipal Commissioner Puneet Sharma, Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Jaswant Rai, PPCB Executive Engineer Sandeep Kumar and others.