Poor response to mobile app to check stubble burning

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 21

As the harvesting season for the paddy crop is on, straw burning has become a major issue being faced by the state government. Environmentalists say it not only affects the environment, but also damages the health of people. The government, besides taking measures to make farmers aware about ill-effects of stubble burning, launched a mobile application — e-Prevent — which will help keep a check on such incidents. After downloading the application, the user can click the picture of the spot, after which the current location of the user will be fetched by the application and the picture will be submitted.

The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), under the state government, launched the application on October 11 and the authorities had said it could easily be accessed through the Google Play Store on an Android phone. However, neither it has been downloaded by any individual so far, nor any complaint has been reported on it. Also, through the complaint option, people could act as informers. They just have to upload the picture of the area where the stubble burning activity is taking place, making the government aware of the same.

Aman Sood, an official of the PRSC said: “One just needs to click on the option called — take photo from camera, enter the title of the image and press the submit button. It will get the location of the sender. The app will give accurate information at the exact time.”

It also shows options such as select district, block and villages, which are optional.

Sood said: “The PRSC was keeping a tab on stubble burning cases 24x7 through satellite and we used to submit the data collected for the day to the departments concerned, including the patwari, Pollution Control Department, Deputy Commissioner, at the end of the day. But this new app will help to share the information instantly. The app has two language options, English and Punjabi.

Agriculture information officer Harjinder Singh said he had been promoting the app for the past many days but due to lack of awareness it was not downloaded by any resident. Other than that, I-Machine and e-Pahal apps have also been launched to enhance the awareness of machines and to keep a tab on greenery in the state, respectively.