Disqualify farmers burning stubble on panchayat land: Punjab Agri Dept

In a bid to reduce pollution, Punjab Agriculture Department has urged Rural Development and Panchayats Department to bar farmers who are cultivating panchayat land and indulging in stubble from taking the land on lease in the future.

According to an official statement, the Agriculture Department made the suggestion in a bid to ensure a clean, green and pollution-free environment in the state this winter.

"There are nearly 1.37 lac acres of panchayat land under agriculture, where this unhealthy practice of open stubble burning could be averted effectively through coherent compliance of government orders," said Agriculture Secretary Kahan Singh Pannu.

Referring to the celebration of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, Pannu said: "It is our bounden duty to keep Punjab's environment safe and healthy on this pious occasion as millions of devotees from across the globe will be visiting the religious places associated with first Sikh Guru in different parts of the state."

"In reverence to this historic event, besides upholding the ideology of Guru Nanak to protect natural resources, the farmers should refrain from burning of paddy straw which poses serious threat to the environment, soil texture as well as human health," he added.

He also emphasised the need to sensitize the farmers holding panchayat lands against the ill-effects of crop residue burning.

"The Rural Development and Panchayats Department should launch a massive drive to persuade the farmers to abstain from this practice," he said.

Pannu also said that the Agriculture Department had already ordered to impound the combine harvester machines functioning without Super Straw Management System (SMS).

He said that no harvester combine shall be allowed to harvest paddy in the state without installation of SMS which cuts the straw into small pieces, thereby helping the farmers to manage it without resorting to burning.