Subsidies to farmers go up in smoke as stubble burning continues

As many as 71,024 farm fires were recorded till November 22 compared to 76,501 during the same period last year

Harbhajan Singh returned to Sadhanpur village in east Punjab's SAS Nagar district from two days off over Diwali, to find the paddy straw stubble from the three acres he farms, which he had bundled into neat stacks, turned to ash. "I was to transport and sell the bundles to the nearby industrial unit for use as fuel in its boiler, but the farm owner complained it was taking too long and set it on fire," Singh told IndiaSpend. "I had spent around Rs 7,000 on fuel, labour and other inputs. All of that has now gone to waste."

Harbhajan Singh