Efforts of State Government to stop stubble burning bear fruit -

– Fire cases reduced by 30 percent this time compared to last year : Meet Hayer

Chandigarh, 30 November 2022 : The campaign launched by the State Government to prevent stubble burning during the paddy season has received a huge response as there has been a 30 percent reduction in fire cases this time compared to last year. This was disclosed by Environment Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in a press communiqué released here today.

Meet Hayer said that under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the State Government, in order to stop the stubble burning, decided to go in for the in-situ and ex-situ management. Besides, a special campaign was started to honour the farmers who did not burn stubble. He said that last year 2021, 71304 fire incidents were reported from September 15 to November 30 in the State, while 49907 fire incidents occurred during the same period this year. Thus, a 30 percent reduction was recorded this year.

Environment Minister further said that stubble burning is not the problem of Punjab alone, it is the problem of the entire country. Despite the Union Government’s rejection of the State Government’s proposal to provide financial assistance to farmers, the cases of stubble burning have reduced due to the efforts of the State Government. He said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had demanded compensation amount from the Center in which Punjab was also to contribute its share. Similarly, he himself had put this demand before the Union Minister in the conference of environment ministers of the states. Had there been a positive response from the Centre, there would have been a further decline in stubble burning cases.

Meet Hayer added that about 10 million straws have been managed through in situ management which is about 25 percent more than last year. Similarly, 1.8 million straw has been managed through the ex situ method which is more than 33 per cent over the previous year. Students of schools, colleges and universities were also made part of the awareness campaign. A total of 3093 camps were organized this year.

Clarifying the cases of fire, he also said that if a farmer sets fire to waste after making straw bales instead of straw, that is also included in the case of fire through satellite image, but it doesn’t results in pollution, that is why less pollution was recorded in the cities of Punjab compared to Haryana and other states. He said that Punjab has sent the program for the next three years to the Center and the state government is committed to completely eliminate stubble burning cases in the coming years.