Air quality ‘poor’ in Punjab, Haryana

air quality in several parts of Punjab and Haryana on Monday saw marginal improvement but remained in “poor” category. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Mandi Gobindgarh town of Fatehgarh Sahib district and Jind in Haryana reported ir respective 21 Air Quality Indices (AQIs) at 294 and 280. AQIs recorded in Yamunanagar, Panipat and Ambala districts were 243, 202 and 204 respectively. districts in Haryana where AQI was in “moderate” category were Fatehab (182), Gurugram (140), Hisar (178), Rohtak (199), Karnal (132), CPCB said. A few places in Haryana and Punjab h reported AQIs in “very poor” categories two days ago.

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A number of farm fire incidents

In Punjab, respective AQIs of Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Khanna were in “moderate” category at 171, 119 and 122. Chandigarh, common capital of both states, witnessed air quality index at 102, it stated. where in Punjab and Haryana was air quality reported in “very poor” and “severe” categories. An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘Good’, 51-100 ‘Satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘Moderate’, 201-300 ‘Poor’, 301-400 ‘Very Poor’ and 401-500 ‘Severe’. An AQI of above 500 falls in ‘Severe plus’ category. Meanwhile, number of farm fire incidents, considered a major reason for pollution in two states and neighbouring areas, including Delhi, h dropped significantly over past few days.

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Sit-in protest

In all, total farm fire incidents between September 23 and vember 17 this year in Punjab were 49,157 as against 43,288 and 48,604 in corresponding period of 2017 and 2018, respectively, an official of Ludhiana based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre said. On Sunday, 352 farm fire incidents took place in state, official ded. Haryana has reported a total of over 6,000 farm fire incident in this season so far, he said. Farmers’ outfit Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and BKU (Dakonda) on Monday anunced to st sit-in protests in front of Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) offices throughout state on vember 25 to press for withdrawal of FIRs lodged and fines imposed against farmers for stubble burning.

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Rs.2,500 per acre compensation

BKU (Ugrahan) General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said if cases were t withdrawn against farmers, n y would ‘gherao’ police offices in state. In Punjab, more than 1,500 FIRs h been registered against erring farmers for defying ban on stubble burning and a fine of Rs.3.01 crore h been imposed on more than 11,000 farmers for stubble burning, while 71 harvesting machines h been impounded. Punjab Government h disbursed over Rs.19 crore to 29,800 n-basmati pdy cultivating small and marginal farmers from across state, who did t burn pdy residue. state government h decided to give Rs.2,500 per acre as compensation to those small and marginal farmers, who have refrained from burning pdy straw. 

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