Lashing out at the governments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for failing to curb severe air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court said that it is a question of life and death of crores of people, but it is “very unfortunate” that they are not bothered about poor people and letting them die.

A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta directed the Centre and state governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to prepare a comprehensive plan within three months to take care of environmental issues.

It also directed the governments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to provide support of Rs 100 / quintal within a week to small and marginal farmers who have not burned the stubble.

Observing that “agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and it’s bounden duty of the state to look after the interest of farmers”, the bench said it is absolutely necessary that the farmers are provided necessary machines to prevent stubble burning.

“Can you permit people to die like this and make it fait accompli? Can you permit to go back by 100 years? It will be total chaos and total failure of the government machinery in the country,” the Supreme Court said.

The bench did not accept the suggestions of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal who said that farmers are reluctant to stop stubble burning and they have no other alternative as stopping it would affect their livelihood.

Venugopal said that areas in Punjab and Haryana can be divided into zones and stubble burning can be allowed in a particular zone on a given day. He said stubble burning in these states contributes to around 44 per cent pollution in Delhi-NCR.

“But why stubble burning? Why the government machinery cannot stop this? Is stubble burning the only solution? Why can’t it be collected or purchased by the government? The government says that stubble burning is the only solution. We cannot allow this in the country. We are in a civilised country,” the bench said.

Venugopal said that in Punjab, farmers have tried machines to remove stubble from the fields but they say that these equipment is ineffective in large areas. He said that as far as small farmers are concerned, they say that these machines are very costly and they cannot afford them.

“You give subsidy to the farmers,” the bench said.

It said the authorities have to work closely with farmers and provide them necessary assistance so that they do not indulge in stubble burning anymore.

PM’s directive on distributing machines

Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed the Union agriculture ministry to give priority to farmers of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana in distributing equipment to prevent stubble burning.

There are agro machines available in the market that remove stubble and the governments of Haryana and Punjab are offering subsidies to farmers to buy the equipment.

The PM issued these directions at the meeting of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation - PRAGATI, an ICT-based multimedia platform, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“On the issue of stubble burning, the PM directed agriculture ministry to give priority to the farmers of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana in distribution of equipment to prevent such occurrences,” it stated.

Farm fires on the rise in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab continued to defy the ban on stubble burning with the state reporting 4,741 farm fire incidents on November 6. Though the stubble burning count was lower compared to November 5, it was still 59 per cent more than that of the corresponding period in the last year.

According to satellite data collected by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Sangrur and Bathinda continued to be the worst-affected districts with the highest number of farm fire incidents of 785 and 676 in a single day, respectively.

Among other districts, Moga, Mansa and Ferozepur reported farm fire incidents at 493, 460 and 433, respectively, as per the data.

On November 6, Punjab had reported the season’s highest farm fire count at 6,668. The state had recorded stubble burning incidents of 165 and 2,983 on November 6 in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Between September 23 and November 6, Punjab reported 42,676 incidents of farm fire, which was almost 41 per cent higher than stubble burning incidents in the corresponding period last year.

According to the accumulated figure, Sangrur district topped the chart of number of farm fire incidents at 5,557, followed by Ferozepur at 4,453, Bathinda at 4,211 and Patiala at 3,548.

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