Delhi air pollution: Plans to curb stubble burning remain a non-starter

Oil companies yet to start procuring stubble, agri-mechanisation remains half-baked

Several plans to divert crop residue or stubble remain non-starters even as the National Capital Region (NCR) chokes on severe air pollution every year. 

To prevent rise in air pollution levels, oil marketing companies (OMCs) and thermal power units were planning to procure stubble and promote the central government’s ‘Agricultural Mechanization’ for crop residue management. But both have seen minimal success.

Officials said the plan by OMCs to procure stubble from farmers to make bioethanol was likely to materalise from the next financial year. The government had last year planned to set up at least 12 second-generation bioethanol plants, which