Farm fires in Punjab leap to another ignominious high — 3,315 in a day Farm fires in Punjab leap to another ignominious high — 3,315 in a day

The Haryana government Friday announced a cash award of Rs 1,000 to anyone who provides them information about cases of farmers burning crop residue in their area. The identity of the informant will be kept secret.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who chaired a meeting on crop residue management here, also asked officers of agriculture and farmers’ welfare department to visit the 10 villages of the state where maximum crop residues were burnt to ascertain the reasons.

He also directed deputy commissioners to take stringent measures to prohibit burning of crop residue.

In the meeting, the officers apprised Khattar that “a 34 per cent reduction has been registered in the area burnt in the state upto October 22 this year as compared to the corresponding period the last year”. The government said “while crop residue burning was reported on 57,000 hectares of land last year, this year, it was reported only on 38,000 hectares”.

Khattar also directed the concerned officers to encourage farmers not to burn crop residues and also apprise them of the different options of crop management. The CM also asked DCs to organise gram sabha meetings so that detailed deliberations could be held with farmers .

Khattar also directed officers to explore options for purchase of crop residue from the farmers.

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