In Punjab, govt employees to face action if farm fires spotted on their rented out land

In an attempt to curb stubble burning amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Punjab government has ordered legal action against its employees if farm fires are spotted on the land they have rented out to someone else for cultivation.

The move comes after it was found that in the previous years many government employees had leased out their land in their native villages but failed to sensitise the cultivators not to burn the crop residue.

“In every far fire incident, the name of the landowner is being mentioned specifically in the report this time. Action will be taken against the farmer in case of violation as per the law. But if the land belongs to a government employee, it will be mentioned in their annual confidential report (ACR) besides lodging an FIR against them,” said Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) executive engineer Kuldeep Singh.

The government is taking initiatives amid the pandemic as stubble burning is harmful to health and inhaling bad air can aggravate the complications among people, particularly the elderly and those with comorbidities.

“Nodal officers have been appointed in each village and different government departments were roped in the drive to prevent stubble burning. The nodal officer is responsible for ensuring that stubble is not burnt in that village. But if someone burns stubble, the nodal officer will compile a report and send it to the patwari who will forward it to the cluster officer for imposing a fine,” Singh said.

The deputy superintendent of police (DSP) concerned will take legal action on basis of the report.

District agriculture officer (Jalandhar) Naresh Gulati said awareness camps are being organised in the villages to sensitise farmers to not burn stubble and motivate them to use machines to dispose the crop residue in the fields.

Meanwhile, the PPCB has detected eight stubble burning cases in Jalandhar and 12 in Kapurthala so far. In the last year, Jalandhar district had recorded 1550 and in Kapurthala over 1200 cases of stubble burning in the last session.