Amid protests by farmers, Punjab sees 634 farm fires; count crosses 35,000

Mohit Khanna/Surinder Bhardwaj

Tribune reporters

Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Nov 20

Amid statewide uproar by farm unions over police action on farmers for setting paddy residue on fire, the state has witnessed 634 cases of farm fire on Monday. The total count has reached 35,093. At 168, Fazilka logged the maximum number of incidents.

1,084 FIRs registered

Police teams have registered 1,084 FIRs, while penalties worth Rs 1.87 crore been imposed in 7,990 cases since November 8. Red entries have also been made in revenue records of 340 farmers. Arpit Shukla, Special DGP

1,085 flying squads

As many as 1,085 flying squads comprising the police and civil officials are keeping a vigil on stubble burning in the villages

Besides Fazilka, Moga reported 98 incidents of stubble burning, Ferozepur 97, Bathinda 55, Muktsar 62, Barnala 20, Faridkot 45, Sangrur 17, Ludhiana 11, Tarn Taran 12, Mansa 5, Jalandhar 10, Malerkotla 3, Amritsar 7, Gurdaspur 5, Kapurthala and Ludhiana reported 11 cases each, while four cases each were reported in Patiala and Fetehgarh Sahib.

Bathinda continues to remain the most polluted city of the state with an average AQI of 302 followed by Jalandhar 247, Ludhiana 220, Patiala was 209 and Amritsar 270, Mandi Gobindgarh 190 and Khanna 150.

While in Patiala, farmers gheraoed mini-secretariat and parked trolleys at the entry gate, the situation turned worse in Fatehgarh Sahib when farmers led by Jagjit Singh Dalewal, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union-Ekta Sidhupur, parked their trolleys loaded with stubble on the road and staged a protest after being stopped by a police party.

They disrupted the traffic for hours causing inconvenience to commuters. It was after police officials arrived and managed to persuade the protesting farmers.

Director General of Police, Law and Order, Arpit Shukla, who is also a state police nodal officer to keep a check on stubble burning, claimed, “This is consecutively for the third day that the state has witnessed a significant downfall of at least 28.8 per cent in the cases of stubble burning,” he said, adding that on Saturday and Sunday, the state had recorded 740 and 637 farm fire cases.

As many as 1,085 flying squads comprising police and civil officials have been keeping a vigil on stubble burning, while, CPs/SSPs have been holding meetings with kisan leaders at a district level and DSPs are holding meetings with kisan leaders at the block level to sensitise them about the Supreme Court orders. At least 2,587 such meetings have been held since November 8.

Special DGP Arpit Shukla has visited at least three police districts — Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar and Jagraon — to hold review meetings with the field officers and review ground-level situation of stubble burning. 

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