‘Will dump stubble in front of minister’s office’

Amritsar, September 24

Up-in-arms against the government for taking action against farmers for burning paddy residue in fields, farmers have threatened to pile up the paddy residue outside the office of Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal in Ajnala near here on October 5.

A meeting of farmers and Kirti Kisan Union (KKU) members was held at Ajnala today, wherein the farmers complained that the government had failed to create any alternate use of the crop residue.

They stated that government had also backtracked from giving financial assistance to farmers for alternate management of crop residue in fields.

The farmers stated that alternate management of crop residue is a time consuming, cumbersome and costly process. They stated that farmers have to incur a cost of Rs 3,000 per acre if they mix the crop residue in soil.

Kirti Kisan Union president Satnam Singh said: “More than 95 per cent of the farmers do not have the machines which are required for alternate management of crop residue.”

Farmer leader Jatinder Singh Chinna said: “Even if the farmers make bales of stubble, it does not have any market value.

The farmers will need space to store these bales.” He said the only alternate to burning of crop residue is to find a use for the same as in cardboard or paper industry. Chinna said instead of taking up the responsibility, the government is trying to put the onus on farmers. He said only eight per cent of the total pollution is caused by agriculture sector and remaining comes from industry, vehicles and other sectors.

“While the government is acting tough against farmers, it has never acted against pollution-causing industries,” said Chinna.