STUBBLE BURNINGPanel seeks proposals from farmer unions

To put an end to the menace of paddy straw burning, the justice Mehtab Singh Gill-led committee on Tuesday held a meeting with farmer unions at Kisan Bhawan in Chandigarh.

During the meeting, it was decided to seek proposals from farmer unions to end the menace of residue burning and manage the paddy straw in eco-friendly manner. The committee decided to involve the unions to resolve the issues and to solve the menace permanently.

To achieve the goal of zero stubble burning, agriculture secretary KS Pannu said the state government had provided more than 51,000 agro-machines to the state’s farmers with a subsidy components of ₹489 crore during the previous two paddy seasons. “Without the cooperation of the farmers and their unions we cannot make Punjab a zero stubble burning state,” he said.

During the meeting, Rajinder Singh of the Kirti Kissan Union, Jagmohan Singh Uppal of the BKU Dakonda, Sukhdev Singh of the BKU Ugrahan, Mehar Singh Theri of the BKU Sidhupur and Nachhatar Singh of the BKU Lakhowal put forward the views of farmers on the issue.