Chandigarh, Sep 24 Haryana will deploy a ‘Parali Protection Force’ comprising police personnel, agriculture department officials and administrative officers, among others, at the district and block levels to prevent paddy stubble burning, officials said on Thursday.
The state will also intensify late-evening patrolling and use drones to monitor farm fires, while providing farmers an incentive of Rs 1,200 per acre for optimal utilisation of crop-residue management machinery.
The steps are part of Haryana’s action plan to eliminate stubble burning ahead of the paddy harvesting season, with procurement set to begin soon.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi-NCR. With a short window between the paddy harvest in October-November and sowing of the Rabi crop, particularly wheat, many farmers burn crop residue or ‘parali’ to quickly clear their fields.
Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Thursday reviewed the state’s action plan for elimination of stubble burning and compliance with directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).
The Parali Protection Force will comprise police personnel, agriculture department officials, administrative officers, nodal and cluster officers and officials from other stakeholder departments.
The force will operate at district and block levels to closely monitor farm-fire incidents and take action against stubble burning, officials said.
Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Vijayendra Kumar said patrolling during late-evening hours would be intensified, taking into account attempts by some farmers to burn paddy residue after dark to evade satellite-based recording of farm fires.
The enforcement plan stipulates three actions in every verified case of paddy stubble burning — registration of an FIR, challan and a “red entry” in the farmer’s land record. Environmental compensation charges will also be imposed and recovered from violators, an official statement said.
At the same time, the government is focusing on incentives and machinery availability to provide farmers alternatives to burning. The state is providing an incentive of Rs 1,200 per acre, besides a subsidy on the purchase of crop-residue management machines, for their optimal utilisation.
The government plans to move balers, rakers and other machines between districts according to paddy harvesting schedules. Harvesting begins in Yamunanagar, Ambala, Karnal and Kurukshetra from September and progresses to Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar and Jind during the last week of October.
Officials have been asked to coordinate with baler owners in neighbouring states and adjoining Haryana districts to facilitate the movement of machinery during the season.
Director, Agriculture, Amit Khatri said 8,134 village-level nodal officers have been appointed for field monitoring.
Haryana has around 6,21,285 registered paddy farmers across 5,600 villages, covering about 3.41 million acres of land. So far, 6,04,314 farmers have been covered by nodal officers.
Under the monitoring mechanism, a maximum of 100 farmers can be tagged to each nodal officer, with the limit reduced to 50 in hotspot villages.
Officials said nodal officers are to use a mobile application to report active fire locations and record whether tagged farmers are managing crop residue through in-situ, ex-situ or fodder-based methods.
The Parali Protection Force is expected to take immediate action on active fire locations reported through the app.
Haryana is also moving towards drone-based surveillance. In accordance with CAQM directions, the state is in the process of deploying drones in association with Drone Imaging and Information Services of Haryana Limited (DRIISHYA) for monitoring stubble-burning incidents.
Deputy Commissioners will finalise in advance the villages and locations where drones will fly.
The action plan further calls for government and panchayat land to be identified for safe storage of paddy straw bales, while storage facilities are to be arranged in coordination with industries that use paddy residue.
District-level supply-chain plans are also envisaged to map baling, pelleting, briquetting and storage infrastructure and link farmers with end-user industries.
The government is simultaneously expanding its awareness campaign. As many as 646 village-and block-level camps, discussions and demonstrations have been held, involving 23,189 farmers, while 370 school and college activities involving 19,232 students have been conducted.
The chief secretary directed all concerned departments, deputy commissioners and field officers to maintain close coordination, intensify ground-level monitoring and ensure prompt action against every verified instance of stubble burning.
He said the objective is to protect the environment and air quality while supporting farmers in adopting sustainable residue-management practices.
(PTI News)
