New Delhi: Like previous years, this time too the claims of Punjab and Haryana regarding stubble management are proving to be hollow. Incidents of open stubble burning have started coming to light in both the states. In order to save Delhi-NCR from the poisonous smoke of stubble, both the states have given the plan of stubble management to the Central Government and Air Quality Management Commission, in which every single straw of stubble has to be prevented from burning.

The target is to destroy about half of the stubble in the fields with the help of machines and bio-decomposers, but till now most of the machines have not moved from the customer hiring centers and neither have these states started spraying bio-decomposers to destroy the stubble in the fields. That is, the entire plan of stubble management is limited to papers only and the lives of people have been left at the mercy of God.

The central government has given assistance of crores of rupees so far

This is the situation when the central government has already given crores of rupees to Punjab and Haryana for stubble management. According to the report, so far 1682 crores have been given to Punjab and 1082 crores to Haryana. This year i.e. in the year 2024-25 also, 150 crores have been given to Punjab and 75 crores to Haryana for stubble management. Even after this, incidents of stubble burning continue in both the states.

According to a report of the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment, till October 3, about 315 cases of stubble burning have been reported in both the states. Out of these, 200 cases are from Punjab alone, while 115 cases are from Haryana.

The shocking thing is that in stubble management, the farmers of both the states are to be given the option of sowing other crops instead of paddy, so that the production of stubble can be reduced. But this could not be done either. Instead, this year the production of stubble has been more in both the states than last year.

Last year, 1.94 crore tonnes of straw was produced in Punjab

Last year 1.94 crore tons of straw was produced in Punjab, while this year 1.95 crore tons of straw was produced. Whereas in Haryana last year 73 lakh tons of straw was produced, while this year 81 lakh tons of straw was produced. It is worth noting that between October and December, the smoke caused by burning of straw contributes to about 40 percent of the air pollution in Delhi-NCR.