Officials cautioned against laxity in curbing farm fires

Government officials assigned the task of implementing guidelines of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for preventing stubble burning have been cautioned against showing leniency against erring farmers.

Data mismatch

• The authorities at Malerkotla, Amargarh and Ahmedgarh subdivisions say there was a substantial mismatch between the number of farm fires in the region received from the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre and the count of incidents discovered during physical verification.
• While the centre data suggested 25 incidents of stubble burning in the district, no such incident came to the fore during verification by nodal officers and cluster officers.
• Geo-tagged photographs also substantiated that no crop residue was set on fire as mentioned in the reports.

Special teams of designated officials, each led by a senior functionary, today conducted surprise checking in all three subdivisions of the district to ensure there was no laxity in undertaking preventive and punitive measures to check stubble burning.

Deputy Commissioner Pallavi, SSP Gagan Ajit Singh, ADC Sukhpreet Singh Sidhu, Assistant Commissioner Gurmit Bansal, SDM Harbans Singh (additional charge Ahmedgarh) and Amargarh SDM Surinder Kaur were among those who led the checking teams.

The authorities at Malerkotla, Amargarh and Ahmedgarh subdivisions disclosed that there had been substantial mismatch between the data regarding number of farm fires in the region received from the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) and the number of incidents discovered during physical verification.

While the PRSC data suggested 25 incidents of stubble burning in the district till now, no such incident came to the fore during verification by nodal officers and cluster officers. Geo-tagged photographs also substantiated that no crop residue had been set on fire as mentioned in the reports.

“None of our teams, including the one led by me and another by the SSP, found any sign of stubble burning, except for a field on outskirts of Guara village in Amargarh subdivision, where an attempt to burn crop residue by a farmer was foiled,” said Pallavi. She added that however, any employee found not reporting such incidents would be taken to task.

To implement the action plan for control of burning of crop residue, the administration deployed around 150 government employees from various departments as nodal officers to keep a close watch on activities related to stubble burning.

While most nodal officers and their seniors had been following the instructions diligently, negligence on the part of some employees had resulted in a delay in uploading of reports regarding physical verification of data received from the PRSC recently.

SDM Harbans Singh claimed that the status report of all nodal officers and cluster incharges was being forwarded to senior functionaries so that necessary action could be taken against erring officials.