CAQM team visits Punjab to assess paddy residue management

The team of Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in Delhi, led by chairperson Rajesh Verma is on a visit to Punjab to assess paddy residue management initiatives taking place across the state and measures that are needed to be taken to enhance the use of paddy residue as fuel in the energy sector.

CAQM chairperson Verma said, “After the Green Revolution, now a stubble revolution is taking place in Punjab.”

He visited the Rajpura thermal power plant to review the process of mixing of biomass pellets with coal, and to assess stubble management efforts in Patiala district on Thursday.

CAQM member secretary Tarun Kumar Pithode accompanied him during the visit.

The team is also scheduled to visit a German company-owned bio-energy plant in Sangrur and later during the day, team members will visit a refinery in Bathinda.

Gurnam Singh, head of the Paddy Stubble Management Cell of the CAQM, said the visit was aimed at evaluating the status of stubble management initiatives being carried out in the state.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had on Friday suggested a triple action plan and instructed Punjab officials to simultaneously register an FIR, impose fine and make “red entries” in revenue records against farmers involved in stubble-burning.

After witnessing an upward trend for over a week, the farm fires witnessed a downward trend today with merely 94 incidents of paddy residue burning reported from across the state.

After touching a season high of 442 on October 31, numbers came down marginally to 178 on Sunday, 256 on Monday and rose again to 321 on Tuesday. Notably, 2,000 cases — a whopping 68 per cent of the total — were reported in the past eight days alone.

The pollution control authorities also came down heavily on Tuesday and today strict penal action was taken against the farmers.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board has imposed environmental compensation in 143 fresh cases, taking the total to 1,152 and imposing an amount of over Rs 60 lakh. The police have registered 131 FIRs, taking count to 896. The Revenue Department has made an addition of 141 “red entries” against violators taking the total count to 1,087.

The officials were on toes anticipating a spurt in the incident of stubble-burning due to a public holiday on account of Gurpurb. However, in a pleasant surprise, the incidents declined. While 18 incidents of stubble-burning were reported in Moga, 16 each were reported in Sangrur and Muktsar. As many as 10 incidents of paddy residue-burning were reported in Ludhiana.

The cumulative count of stubble burning has reached 2,933 which is 61 per cent less than last year. As many as 4,755 incidents of paddy residue-burning were reported during the same period last year.

Sangrur (526), Tarn Taran (509), Ferozepur (297), Amritsar (254), Bathinda (201), and Patiala (168) account for the bulk of this season’s cases.