Make balers available to check stubble burning: DC

Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Panchal on Tuesday ordered the Agriculture and Cooperation Department to ensure availability of balers in hot spot villages for proper disposal of stubble so that farmers do not have to face problems regarding availability of machinery.

During a meeting of the “Parali Protection Force”, the Deputy Commissioner directed the officials of Agriculture, Cooperation and Pollution Control Board, apart from SDMs and DSPs, to jointly visit villages and establish direct contact with the farmers and motivate them to dispose of stubble in the fields instead of burning it. He also asked the officers of the Cooperation Department to go to the villages associated with the cooperative societies and establish direct contact with the farmers.

Apart from this, the farmers should be informed about the 156 machines available for the management of stubble by all 22 cooperative societies so that the farmers can use these tools as per their requirement. The DC said that announcements should be made in the villages to inform the farmers about the agricultural machinery.

The DC also informed that only combines with Super SMS (Straw Management System) have been authorised for harvesting paddy. He said that for the proper disposal of stubble, it is very important to have SMS installed on the combine, for which he directed the police department to take action against the combines working without super SMS.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Varinderpal Singh Bajwa, SP Gurpreet Singh, Sultanpur Lodhi SDM Alka Kalia, Kapurthala SDM Major Irwin Kaur, Bholath SDM Davy Goyal and Phagwara SDM Jashanjit Singh, Assistant Commissioner Vishal Watts, all DSPs, Agriculture, Assistant Director of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dr Harinder Singh, Mandi Board, Cooperation Department officers were present. Only combines with Straw Management System allowed to harvest paddy.