Take steps to bring down stubble burning incidents: CAQM to Punjab govt

The Centre's air quality panel on Friday directed deputy commissioners of all districts in Punjab, barring Pathankot, to take measures to "drastically" bring down the number of farm fires in the agrarian state.

A thick layer of smog has enveloped Delhi-NCR for the last two days, primarily due to unfavourable meteorological conditions trapping pollutants and raging farm fires in Punjab.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) reviewed the implementation of measures to restrict the farm fire count in Punjab at a meeting with its chief secretary and deputy commissioners of 22 districts, barring Pathankot (no farm fire incidents were reported there).

A statement said the primary focus of the review meeting was to reiterate the need to intensify action to check the sudden spike in the number of stubble burning cases seen in the last few days.

"The chief secretary and deputy commissioners were reminded of their earlier commitments of drastically bringing down the farm fire counts in 2022 as compared to last year," the statement said.

"The deputy commissioners of 10 districts namely Amritsar, Barnala, Bhatinda, Firozpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Tarn Taran and Patiala -- where more than 1,000 fire counts have been reported -- were specifically advised to pay special attention to the implementation of the action plan," it said.

Punjab government officials assured that they will put their best foot forward to substantially bring down the rising farm fire incidents in the state.

The share of stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 30 per cent on Friday. It had jumped to 34 per cent on Thursday, the highest so far this season, which experts said was the reason behind the thick layer of smog persisting over Delhi-NCR.

Punjab reported 2,437 farm fires on Friday. The count was 2,666 on Thursday, 3,634 on Wednesday, the highest so far this season, 1,842 on Tuesday, 2,131 on Monday, 1,761 on Sunday, 1,898 on Saturday and 2,067 on Friday.