Published 15:49 IST, November 4th 2019
Haryana CM releases map of stubble burning data; Punjab covered in red
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday released the data about stubble burning in the last 48 hours on the microblogging website Twitter.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday released data about stubble burning in the last 48 hours on the microblogging website Twitter. In the picture posted by him, the red dots indicate the areas where the burning of crops is underway. According to this data, stubble burning is largely concentrated in the southern and western parts of Punjab, while there is hardly any such activity in Haryana. This comes at a juncture when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has put the blame on the rising pollution levels in the national capital on the burning of crops in neighbouring states such as Haryana and Punjab.
A reward of Rs.1,000 announced
The Haryana CM’s office released a statement on November 1 that Khattar was informed about the 34% reduction in the burning of crops recorded up to October 22, in comparison to the same period in 2018. On this occasion, the CM instructed officers to encourage farmers to give up the practice of stubble burning and educate them about alternatives, to move towards a cleaner environment. The onus was put on Deputy Commissioners to take strict measures in this regard. Khattar also directed the officials working in the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department to visit 10 villages where maximum incidents of crop burning had been reported. Moreover, he not only announced a reward of Rs.1,000 to those reporting such cases but also assured them complete anonymity.
Khattar requests meeting to prepare a joint strategy
Later, on Saturday, the Haryana CM wrote a letter to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar requesting him to convene a meeting of the CMs of Delhi and neighbouring states. He opined that it was necessary to prepare a joint strategy to address the alarming levels of pollution in the National Capital Region. Furthermore, he took an indirect dig at Kejriwal by criticising the "growing tendency" of some stakeholders to "play petty politics" on crop burning and the resulting pollution.
Updated 16:15 IST, November 4th 2019