Under pressure from the authorities not to burn the farm residue, Punjab farmers have now started showing the signs of resentment as the state government has allegedly not provided them with any assistance or compensation even after the National Green Tribunal's directions.

"The state government has failed to provide us with the assistance of Rs 200 per quintal. We have now asked the farmers to burn the paddy straws without any hesitation. We will continue to set the farm residue ablaze till the government comes with a compensation," Manjit Singh, district president, Bhartiya Kisan Union Sangrur, said.

The activists of the Bhartiya Kisan Union also protested in Bhatinda and burned the paddy straws in protest against the Punjab government's failure to compensate the farmers to stop them from burning the farm residue. They have also alleged that the paddy straw management machines that were provided to the farmers are faulty.

On the target of the NGT and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab government, on one hand, said it is providing farm tools to scientifically manage the farm residue on 50 per cent subsidy, and on the other, said it has sought Rs 100 per quintal compensation for the paddy farmers from the Central government.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently claimed that the government had provided 28,000 machines to the farmers in 2018. To know if the farmers had any help from the machines the Punjab government provided, we did a reality check in many parts of the state.

Majority of the farmers in Punjab own smallholdings and cannot afford to buy costly happy seeder, rotavator and roto seed drill machines that cost between Rs two to 16 lakh.

These machines also require high power tractors up 50 HP to pull the heavy machines. The tractors commonly used by the farmers in Punjab have up to 20 horsepower engines.

We spoke to a section of farmers who have been using the happy seeders and rotavators from past one year. Majority of the farmers say only the big farmers can afford to buy these machines and those who use these machines, are not in favour of using them in future due to a lot of reasons.

The machine manufacturers and the government officials are taking the farmers for a ride. The farmers have said that the manufacturers doubled the prices of machines after the state government announced a 50 per cent subsidy on the purchase of these machines.

Bhatinda-based farmer Jaswinder Singh said happy seeder machine did not pull the entire paddy plant residue from the soil, which resulted in termite and rodent attacks. The remains of the paddy straws did not even allow the wheat seeds and manure to touch the soil. The only way to destroy the residue was to burn it," Jaswinder Singh said. He suggested that the state government should run its own machines to clear the fields.

Another Bhatinda farmer Gurmeet Singh who used happy seeder on 12 to 13-hectare holding was also not happy as the paddy straw stubble resulted in a yield drop of at least 10 to 15 kilograms per hectare.

Iqbal Singh of Bathinda who used a rotavator said he will not use these machines this time as "it is not possible to sow the wheat crop using the locally-made machines which are faulty and not able to clear the fields".

The state government plans to offer 26,000 happy seeder and other machines to farmers in the current financial year. The officials say they are also educating the farmers not to burn the farm residue.

They say there was a scarcity of funds with the state government to compensate the farmers. The state government's proposal to provide an assistance of Rs 100 per quintal to the farmers is still hung in record rooms of the Central government.