68% decline in farm fire cases this year: Mohali DC

The district administration claimed to have achieved 68 per cent reduction in stubble burning incidents compared to the previous year with the help of district police and other stakeholder departments.

This time, 36 incidents of stubble burning have been reported till now compared to 113 last year.

Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain said, “The district has found 12 sites under stubble burning upon physical verification of 36 cases reported by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PSRC). Twenty-four sites where no sign of fire was observed would be reported to the state for removing them out of the PSRC data. An environmental compensation of Rs 12,500 has been imposed and recovered.”

Farm machinery has been made accessible to farmers this time. So far, 67 per cent of crop area under paddy has been harvested against the total 35,000 hectares. Out of this, 8,575 hectares have used ex-situ CRM machinery while 12,390 hectares handled stubble by use of in-situ CRM machinery.

The DC said the ex-situ technique was used to manage the stubble by collecting it as bales, while under the in-situ method stubble was mixed with the soil by the use of machinery.

To prevent fire incidents in the district, subdivision level helpline numbers have been launched to maximise the reach CRM machinery to the farmers. In the Kharar subdivision, one can dial 98883-06474, 88472-05441, 95010-09150, in Derabassi, helpline numbers 70095-66834, 99154-38091, 94635-56415 can be contacted for assistance in getting CRM machinery, besides 78889-77511, 96467-55655, 96532-88889 can be contacted in Mohali subdivision.

Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Pareek said two SPs, 10 Dy SPs and 20 SHOs have been deployed to keep a check on farm fires.

Notices issued

To fix the responsibility of the field staff failing to take timely action to curb fire incidents, notices under Section 14 of the CAQM (Commission on Air Quality Management) Act have been issued, besides filing a case before the judicial magistrate against an erring person.