NEW DELHI: The Centre has said that Rs 1 ,000 crore will be earmarked in the coming Budget to tackle the problem of stubble burning , among other things, in Delhi’s neighbouring states in an effort to make the air in the capital more breathable and relieve it from the smog that has come to mark its winters.Appearing before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni said the Centre had decided to provide subsidies to farmers to purchase machines like Happy Seeder and Rotavators to deal with farm residue in a manner that does not require it to be burnt.The machines cut and lift rice straw and simultaneously sow wheat into the bare soil. This means that the cut stubble lies in the fields without impeding sowing of the new crop. It has an added advantage of protecting the soil and seeds from extreme winter cold and frost. With the pollution crisis drawing more attention each passing year, the Centre had set up a high level task force under Nripen Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, to deal with the crisis. The panel set up a sub-committee to exclusively suggest measures for stubble burning, seen as a major reason for deteriorating air quality in Delhi and surrounds in winter.The budgetary allocation will be spent on various schemes, including help to farm cooperatives and others, to stifle the sources of air pollution.Filing the report, Nadkarni said the recommendations have been accepted by the high-powered committee and farmers will be given subsidies to purchase machines. On a query of the bench on how much money would be spent by the Centre, he said the total will be around Rs 1,000 crore and the machinery would be supplied to the farmers by end of September before harvesting of kharif crops. “It is not a heavy price to stop pollution,” the bench said. As per recommendations, a flat subsidy of 50 percent of purchase price will be given through a direct benefit transfer mechanism to individual farmers willing to buy the machines. In case of cooperative societies, farmer groups or gram panchayats, a subsidy of 75 percent of the cost of the machinery will be provided.The report says the total area of cultivation in Punjab and Haryana is 44 lakh hectares and the production of paddy straw has been around 28.5 million tonnes, of which 20.1 million tonnes are burnt by farmers to clear the agricultural land for Rabi crops.The committee also examined the option of a cash incentive of Rs 100 a quintal of paddy procurement to farmers but said it was not feasible to implement as small farmers may not get the benefit and the proposal was not cost effective.