The National Green Tribunal has issued a notice to the Centre asking why it has failed to help the Punjab government curb stubble burning despite constant reminders and asked what steps had been taken to check the unabated crop fires.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar slammed the central government after being told that Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had sought a package of Rs 2,000 crore from the Centre to ensure farmers can remove paddy straw without burning it to check pollution and soil damage.
The smoke from the burning stubble in Punjab and Haryana drifts southwards and exacerbates air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
The state government wanted the Centre to give Rs 100 per quintal to the farmers. Singh had raised the demand at a meeting with union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh in the first week of October.
The agriculture minister had assured he will look into the matter but the final call was to be taken after a meeting between agriculture and environment ministries.
“Since last year we have been telling Centre to provide us funds so that we can provide infrastructure to the farmers. We told NGT that Centre has not helped us despite our constant requests. Therefore NGT has issued notice to the Ministry of Forest and Environment and have told them to file an affidavit by next hearing on October 17,” said Naginder Benipal, the standing counsel for Punjab’s Pollution Control Board.
Throwing the ball in the Centre’s court, the Punjab CM on Friday said that his government understands that farmers are helpless. “Neither the farmers have machinery to manage paddy stubble nor do they have any place to store it. The Centre needs to provide the much needed help,” he said.
The green court also issued a notice to the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), asking why it cannot take crop residue from the farmers under its “corporate social responsibility” for the “general cause of environment”. It also asked the Punjab and Haryana governments to submit a list of power plants and any other industries which may use the crop residue.
Benipal said that the tribunal also questioned the ministry of agriculture why the sanctioned amount of Rs 48.5 crore has not been released to the Punjab government.
The Punjab government, meanwhile, could only bring 12 of the 21 farmers to the hearing from its ‘adopted’ Kalar Majri village. The government had told the NGT that these farmers have been stopped from burning stubble by giving incentives and infrastructural facilities.
According to Benipal, 28 villages have passed a resolution to stop stubble burning. Apart from the 12 farmers, some other farmers from various villages of Punjab who have received machinery from government on subsidized rates were also produced before the court.
Nirmal Singh from Sangrur’s Langowal village said he received a ‘happy seeder’ from Panjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in 2012. “We worked on PAU’s guidelines in 2012 and next year bought happy seeder machine worth Rs 1.20 lakh with the help of subsidy. Stubble burning is a not a right thing to do but farmers don’t have any choice. I suggest the other farmers to start with one or two acres of land,” he said.
Balwinder Singh from a village in Mukstar district said he has not burnt stubble since 2014. “I bought a baler machine after the agriculture department gave me subsidy of Rs 5.70 lakh. We make bales of paddy straw and supply it to the biomas plant,” he said.
However, questioning how the government’s support to a handful of farmers would help tackle the issue, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union’s Rajewal unit Balbir Singh Rajewal said that the government has adopted the smallest village with just 400 acres of land.
“By adopting just 400 acres will stubble burning that takes place in 95 lakh acre of land solve the purpose? Ever since this matter is being discussed, NGT has told the government to provide machinery to the farmers but they haven’t so far. Even today, the court asked the government to provide free of cost machinery to the farmers,” he said.
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