Penalise those burning crop residue stubble: Economic Survey

Vibha Sharna

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 29

The Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Monday deals in detail the issue of deadly air pollution that Delhi and neighbourhood suffers year on year.

The climate change section of the 2017-18 Survey recommends strict enforcement of rules, through heavy penalties on agricultural waste burning and incentives for farmers for technological support.

As per the economic report card, some 35 million tonnes of rice paddy are burnt in late October in the three states — Punjab, Haryana and Western UP — contributing 26 to 29 per cent to the air pollution in the NCR.  

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) reported that 2017 saw worse meteorological conditions compared to 2016 during peak pollution episode in early November, although the banning of fire-crackers caused a significant drop in air pollution compared to last year, it said.

There are four main reasons for Delhi’s worsening air quality – crop residue, biomass burning, vehicular emissions and re-distributed road dust, industries, power plants and winter temperature inversion, humidity and absence of wind. 

To prevent the NCR from turning into a deadly gas chamber, especially during winters, the Survey says each source problem needs to be addressed systematically and with coordination between agencies and Central and state governments and sustained civic engagement. It called for use of technologies to convert agricultural waste into usable concentrated fodder or bio-fuels, development and implementation of business models with private sector and communities and incentives for shifting to non-paddy crops.

Additionally, it also recommended implementation of congestion pricing, expansion of public buses, phasing out of old vehicles. 

Besides, vehicular emissions add about 23-28 per cent from trucks, buses, cars, three-wheelers and two-wheelers. The Survey also recommends Happy Seeder machine that sows seeds without removing paddy straw and technological solutions to be combined with economic incentives. 

Notably, it is expected that along with incentives for renewable energy like solar in the Budget, FM Jaitley on February 1 will also outline plans and allocations for dealing with air pollution, specifically paddy stubble burning in fields of Punjab, Haryana and western UP.

Main pollutants

Crop residue, biomass burning (26-29 per cent): Some 35 million tonnes of rice-paddy stubble in 10 million ha, in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. 

Crop residue burning is a practice that came with combine harvesters — machines that harvest, thresh and clean the separated grain at one go.

Vehicular emissions (23-28 per cent) and redistributed road dust (20-27 per cent): From trucks, buses, cars, three-wheelers and two-wheelers. Diesel particulates have higher share in the vehicular category and are especially dangerous. 

Massive construction, power plants, industry, other (19-35 per cent): Dust particles from construction activity, concentrated in and neighbouring NCR areas. This is further compounded by power plants and industrial pollution.

Winter temperature inversion, humidity and (absence of) wind: Falling air temperature and inversion that locks particulates near the ground, compounded by relative absence of wind.