Haryana rewards its farmers; farm fires down by 67% since 2021

Unlike Punjab which has demanded Rs 1,200 crore from the Centre for payment of incentives to farmers to dissuade them from stubble-burning, Haryana is offering a number of incentives to motivate them not to engage in farm fires that cause air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Haryana Chief Secretary TVSN Prasad said the state government was giving Rs 1,000 per acre to farmers managing their paddy stubble through ex-situ or in-situ management without farm fires, Rs 7,000 for crop diversification, ie, switching over to some crop other than water-guzzling paddy and Rs 4,000 per acre for direct sowing of paddy.

“Another incentive of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 is being given to the panchayats which perform and switch from red zone (having more than five farm fires in the previous year) and yellow zone (having two to five farm fires in the previous year) to green zone (having zero to one farm fire), respectively,” the affidavit read.

“During 2024, additional 9,844 subsidized Crop Residue Management (CRM) machineries have been allotted to farmers and since 2018, a total of 1,00,882 subsidized CRM machineries have been allotted to the farmers/CHCs till date,” it said.

Haryana Senior Additional Advocate General Lokesh Sinhal said giving incentives to farmers for crop diversification and use of machinery has worked as instances of stubble-burning have considerably reduced in the last three years.

Citing Haryana Space Application Centre’s reports, Prasad said active fire locations (AFLs) in the state have come down from 6,987 in 2021 to 2303 in 2023 – a reduction of 67 per cent since 2021.

In the current paddy season till October 20, total 563 AFLs were reported but on physical inspection by field officers only 419 AFLs were actually found this year, the affidavit stated.

“Against these violations, environmental compensation as prescribed has been collected from 327 violators and 93 FlRs have also been lodged against the violators, and out of those 13 violators have been arrested.  Since 2021, Rs 1.97 crore has been collected as penalty. Additionally, red entries have been made in the agriculture record against 379 violators.

“Further, directions have been issued to all Deputy Commissioners and Deputy Directors of Agriculture for lodging FIRs against the defaulting farmers in all the cases. Further, the direction has been issued to the all Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, District Agriculture Officers and Regional Officers of Haryana State Pollution Control Board to file prosecution before the competent Court of Law, in all the cases wherein FIRs have been lodged against the violating farmers,” the Haryana government submitted.

Noting that the Agriculture Department has deputed 4,913 nodal officers at village/block/sub-division and district level for prevention and control of paddy crop residue burning, the Haryana government said in the current paddy harvesting season, 26 officers have already been suspended, charge-sheets have been issued to 11 officials and show-cause notices have been given to 383 officials.