KAPURTTHALA: Despite various steps being taken by the Punjab government to stop the farmers from burning stubble, the farmers of the state are not deterring from burning stubble on the fields.
On Monday, he also got the open support of a farmer's organization for burning stubble. The Bharati Kisan Union (Qadian) has warned of strong opposition to police action against farmers who burn stubble and also raised the issue of the proposed compensation amount of Rs 2500 per acre.
Meanwhile, till Sunday, 711 cases of stubble burning have been registered in various districts of the state. According to the data of Punjab Remote Sensing Authority, farmers of Malwa region are also setting fire to their fields for disposal of stubble. Till now, cases of stubble burning were coming to the fore in the border districts, besides Bathinda, Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, Ropar and Pathankot, but in Malwa areas including Ludhiana, farmers have started burning stubble in the fields. Agriculture department officials are worried that farmers in Majha and Malwa areas will start burning stubble once the paddy crop reaches the mandis in the next two weeks.
On the other hand, farmers' organizations have started coming forward in support of the farmers who burn stubble. Harmeet Singh Kadian of BKU (Qadian) has said that the central and state governments have gone back on their promise of providing cash incentives to farmers for stubble management. He warned that if police action is taken against the farmers who burn stubble, the organization will strongly oppose it. Qadian took the side of the farmers burning stubble and said that due to bad weather, the farmers have postponed the harvesting of crops. Because of this, farmers are now left with very little time to prepare the field for the Rabi crop.
Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of BKIU (Rajewal) has also justified the burning of stubble, saying that till a decade ago, the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in its annual book 'Package and Practice', recommended setting fire to the fields. When farmers have adopted the old method of farming, it will take time for them to learn new methods of stubble management.