Punjab logs 110 fresh farm fires
A total of 110 stubble burning incidents have been reported in the state today. As a result, farm fire count has reached 2,466. Of these, 2,205 cases have surfaced in the past three weeks.
Sangrur lead the chart with 20 stubble burning incidents followed by 18 in Ferozepur, 15 in Mansa, 11 in Faridkot and nine each in Tarn Taran and Bathinda. Eight farm fires were reported in Kapurthala, six in Patiala, four each in Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib, two each in Moga and Gurdaspur and one each in Roopnagar and SAS Nagar.
As many as 219 farm fires were reported on Tuesday, 142 on Monday, 138 on Sunday and 108 on Saturday.
Amritsar continues to top the state with a total of 500 stubble burning cases, followed by Tarn Taran (409) and Patiala (294). Sangrur and Ferozepur have reported 259 and 286 cases, respectively.
Till October 27, environment compensation of Rs 18.27 lakh was imposed in 678 cases and Rs 15.57 lakh was recovered. Red entries have been made in 669 cases, while 1,449 cases have been registered under Section 39 of the Air Act and Section 223 of the BNS.
This season, paddy was sown on 32.5 lakh hectares. It is expected to generate 22.5 million tonnes of straw. Of this, the state aims to utilise around 16 million tonnes of straw.
In 2013, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) prohibited burning of paddy straw, with penalties ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000 per incident, but the enforcement has been weak.
Farm unions claimed that due to a short window between paddy harvesting and sowing of wheat, they were left with no option but to resort to stubble burning.
