The Punjab government has initiated action against almost 3000 farmers for burning stubble. The Amarinder Singh government, which hopes to cut down stubble burning in the state by 10 to 20 per cent this year, said that so far the government has received complaints against 20,729 cases of stubble burning. The government has initiated action against 2,923 farmers, the Punjab CM said.

The government claimed that the total number of stubble burning incidents reported last was around 49,000. In comparison, the government says it has received reports of 20,729 cases till November 1. The Punjab government hopes that as more than 70 per cent of the paddy has already been harvested, the total number of stubble burning reports will remain lower than last year.

"Despite a high court stay in the recovery of fine from farmers penalised last year, the state government has intensified its drive against the dangerous practice of stubble burning," Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said in a statement in Chandigarh on Sunday.

Even as he expressed the hope that the prime minister will understand and respond positively to his letter on the grave issue of the air pollution, Amarinder Singh said his government was working committedly to put a stop to stubble burning.

The enforcement teams had, till November 1, 2019, visited 11,286 fire incidents sites, and environment compensation amounting to Rs 41,62,000 had been imposed in 1,585 cases, a red entry made in Khasra Girdawaris in 1,136 cases, and prosecution/FIR filed in 202 cases against the defaulting farmers.

The process of verifying the remaining fire incidents and levying of environmental compensation was being expedited, said the chief minister, adding that the Punjab Pollution Control Board had also imposed environmental compensation of Rs 62 lakhs on 31 combine harvesters operating without Super SMS.

These steps were not, however, sufficient to check the problem, as the majority of the farmers in Punjab had less than 5 acres of land, making it economically unviable for them to go for hi-end ways of managing the stubble. While staying the process of recovery of the penalty imposed last year, the high court had taken note of the growing indebtedness of marginal farmers and the serious issue of farmer suicides, and had chosen not to add any further financial woes on the farmers, the court had stated, while ordering that punitive actions may go on in due course of the law.

Compensation by the central government was the only solution in the circumstances, said the chief minister, adding that the matter was not one of politics, but a question of the future of our people, which goes beyond politics.

"The ball is in the Centre’s court since most state governments are bankrupt," Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said. Singh further claimed that the states' fiscal situation was linked to GST, which had aggravated their economic problems.

While admitting that Punjab was also contributing to the Delhi smog, Amarinder Singh said to put the blame entirely on his state was absolutely incorrect. Statistics showed that the parameters on the factors relating to pollution were higher in Delhi, he added. Instead of addressing the problem, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was playing political games, he said, asking what the AAP leader was doing on the ground to resolve the issue.

The CM said that the situation aggravated in recent years as the production of paddy had increased, with the last two years reporting record production in Punjab, even though the state’s people were traditionally not rice-eaters

Amarinder Singh pointed out that the cities in the state were also enveloped by smog. Underlining the need to change the cropping pattern by weaning the farmers away from paddy, he reiterated his demand for MSP for other crops to help promote diversification.

"The central government has to step in and find a consensus to resolve the crisis," Amarinder Singh stressed.