Help Punjab tackle stubble burning, MP Sandeep Pathak urges Centre

New Delhi, December 7

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Sandeep Pathak raised the issue of stubble burning in Parliament on Thursday and appealed to the Central Government to cooperate with the Punjab Government for a solution.

Schemes not being implemented

Schemes are already in place to give incentives to farmers if they refrain from straw burning. But the state government has been found lacking in implementation of the schemes. — Bhupendra Yadav, Environment minister

Asking a supplementary question during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Pathak said farmers were often blamed for burning stubble. Farmers burn stubble out of compulsion. It could be prevented.

Pathak said stubble burning could be stopped by providing financial assistance to farmers. The Punjab Government had proposed to give Rs 1,000 per acre to farmers for stubble and appealed to the Centre to contribute Rs 1,500 per acre for the scheme. Thus a tidy sum of Rs 2,500 per acre could be provided to farmers and the problem of stubble burning would come to an end.

Another solution to the stubble problem is crop diversification. Pathak said the MSP of other Kharif crops is very low compared to paddy and as a result farmers prefer to cultivate paddy only. The government had said the difference between the MSP of other crops and paddy would be compensated by the state government. If the Central Government also brought a plan to equalise MSP and implemented it from this year, then good results would be seen.

Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said schemes were already in place to give incentives to farmers in case they refrained from stubble burning but the government had been found lacking in implementation of the schemes.