Govt to send flying squads to monitor farm fires in Haryana, Punjab: Report

The Centre will dispatch flying squads to Punjab and Haryana to monitor stubble burning incidents and submit daily reports, government sources said on Thursday.

This decision was made at a meeting chaired by the cabinet secretary on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by chief secretaries and other senior officials from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, as well as the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM) and secretaries from the ministries of environment, agriculture, housing and urban affairs, and power.

During the meeting, the Cabinet Secretary directed the Punjab administration to take effective actions to prevent further stubble burning in the remaining days of this harvest season, the sources said.

District magistrates, senior superintendents of police, and station house officers have been instructed to ensure there is no further stubble burning.

The CAQM has been tasked with deploying flying squads to Punjab and Haryana and submitting daily reports on farm fires and the status of enforcing the Supreme Court's directives, the sources said.

State governments have been urged to take follow-up actions concerning cases registered in the last two years for violating the ban on stubble burning.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav alleged on Thursday that the AAP government's "criminal failure" to provide alternatives to farmers in Punjab has "turned Delhi into a gas chamber".

He said the Centre had provided Rs 1,426.41 crore to Punjab for procuring machines to manage crop residue and called on AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to account for how they spent the money.

"This country is yet to see a bigger liar than Arvind Kejriwal. 93 percent of farm fire events this year have happened in Punjab, turning Delhi-NCR into a gas chamber, because Aam Aadmi Party has failed to provide alternatives to farmers. This is a criminal failure of governance on the part of AAP," Yadav posted on X.

The sources on Thursday stated that stubble burning in Punjab is the major reason behind air pollution in Delhi-NCR during the paddy harvesting season.

A total of 22,644 stubble burning incidents were recorded between September 15 and November 7, with Punjab accounting for 93 per cent of farm fires.

The sources attributed the "high number of stubble burning incidents" in Punjab to the lack of incentive schemes by the state government.

"The Haryana government has been implementing its own incentive scheme for ex-situ management, including the procurement of straw from farmers and its transportation, etc. They also informed about an incentive scheme being implemented to encourage farmers to shift from paddy to other crops," a source said.

Officials in the meeting noted that the Punjab government should immediately launch similar schemes.

A source mentioned that a bio-decomposer, presented by the Delhi government as a cost-effective solution to stubble burning, has also failed to control farm fires.

According to data from the Decision Support System, a numerical model-based framework capable of identifying sources of particulate matter pollution in Delhi, stubble burning in neighbouring states, especially Punjab and Haryana, accounted for 37 percent of the air pollution in Delhi on Tuesday.

Unfavourable meteorological conditions, combined with vehicular emissions, paddy straw burning, firecrackers, and other local pollution sources, contribute to hazardous air quality levels in Delhi-NCR during the winter every year.

According to a DPCC analysis, the capital experiences peak pollution from November 1 to November 15 when the number of stubble burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana increases.

Delhi has recorded "severe" air quality on 6 days since November 3, with smoke from farm fires, especially in Punjab, being a major contributor to the capital's air pollution.

The air quality in Delhi on Thursday was also in the 'severe' category, and monitoring agencies predict no significant relief in the next five to six days.