No let-up after SC warning, Punjab records 6,668 fires

BATHINDA/PATIALA: Despite Supreme Court strictures, Punjab on Tuesday recorded highest number of stubble burning incidents of this paddy harvest season, defying all efforts to prevent more crop fires as farmers continued to burn stubble.


The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre in Ludhiana detected 6,668 fires on Tuesday, higher than 5,953 fires counted on Monday.

Sangrur and Bathinda were the worst-affected districts, recording 1,007 and 945 farm fires on Tuesday, respectively. Till November 5, 37,935 cases of farm fires have been reported in Punjab compared to 49,000 such cases during the paddy harvesting season last year.

Due to the apex court's tough stance, district authorities in Punjab on Tuesday started arresting farmers apart from levying fines and were registering cases for violation of prohibitory orders. Forty-five farmers in four districts of Mansa, Muktsar, Ludhiana and Barnala were arrested for stubble burning on Tuesday, but a consolidated figure for the whole state is yet to emerge as details across the 22 districts are yet to be compiled by the government.

The spurt in stubble fires comes despite the Punjab government's toughened stance after the Supreme Court on Monday had warned the three states - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab - to put an immediate stop to stubble burning or face contempt proceedings. The apex court had also summoned the chief secretaries of the three states to appear in person on Wednesday to report on the matter.

No details were available for stubble burning in Haryana from Haryana Space Applications Centre , which recorded 402 fires on Monday, but the Isro data has put the fires at 378. A total of 511 complaints and FIRs into paddy stubble burning incidents were received in Haryana on Tuesday.

DCs told to submit daily action report

In Punjab, chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh on Monday evening wrote to divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, DIGs and SSPs that the entire administration must ensure there are no incidents of stubble burning and if the direction is violated, responsibility will not be limited to persons starting the fire but would extend to entire state machinery.

He directed panchayats and police SHOs to prepare a list of inhabitants responsible for stubble burning and warned if any crop fire incident is reported, the sarpanch would be held responsible. He also asked the deputy commissioners to submit a daily action taken report at 5.30 pm to principal secretary, science technology and environment.

Punjab’s agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannu said the state government is very serious to put an end to stubble burning incidents and various directions have been issued to officials and sarpanches to play a proactive role to ensure no more stubble burning incidents are reported from the state.

In Mansa, district authorities imposed fines amounting to Rs 5.1 lakh on farmers for burning stubble, said deputy commissioner Apneet Riyait. Confirming the arrests in his district too, Muktsar DC MK Arvinda Kumar said stern action would continue.

In Bathinda, challans of Rs 9.58 lakh have been issued in 298 cases of stubble burning and fines amounting to Rs 30 lakh have been imposed on 15 owners of combine harvesters working without super SMS. The combines have also been seized, said Bathinda DC B Srinivasan.

Farmers have taken strong note of arresting farmers and registering cases. Senior leaders of farmer organisations BKU Ekta Ugrahan, BKU Ekta Dakonda and BKU Sidhupur asserted they will oppose the arrests tooth and nail and will intensify their protests.