According to the Member Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Krunesh Garg, the necessary directions have already been issued to the concerned Deputy Commissioners to give a special attention to the hotspot villages as each of such villages had witnessed more than 25 fire incidents during the last season.
Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Tarn Taran, Moga and Mansa were identified as hotspot districts, where more than 4000 active fire incidents of paddy stubble burning cases were reported in each of these districts in the past.
Pointing out further, Garg said that a control room in each district has also been set up for monitoring the stubble burning incidents, uploading of the data to mobile apps to the dashboard and preparation and submission of action taken reports to different quarters.
Notably, the has embarked upon a massive program for management of paddy straw, without burning, by the farmers. As many as, 76626 subsidized agro-machines or equipment have been supplied to the farmers, Cooperative Societies, Panchayats and Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) under the Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme in the last three years.
During this year, the Punjab Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has already sanctioned more than 31,000 machines against the applications received from the farmers, PACSs, Panchayats and CHCs for purchasing agri-machinery on 50 percent to 80 percent subsidy for in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy residue.