SME Times News Bureau | 13 Sep, 2018
The Haryana government has set September 20 as the deadline for all
Deputy Commissioners to ensure physical verification and distribution of
subsidy to farmers to curb burning of paddy residue that causes
environmental pollution.
The subsidy is given to farmers for purchasing equipment to manage the crop residue and not to burn it instead.
Agriculture
and Farmers' Welfare Department Principal Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi
held a meeting with all Deputy Commissioners through videoconferencing
here on Wednesday.
He said that Haryana has been making concerted efforts to check burning of crop residue.
"Rewari
district has set a record in giving subsidy to all applicant farmers in
both individual and custom hiring centre categories," Likhi said. He
said that Deputy Commissioners in other districts have been directed to
accelerate the pace of subsidy distribution.
Likhi said that the
Haryana State Pollution Control Board has provided a list to Deputy
Commissioners of villages where fires due to burning of crop residue
took place in 2016.
"The Deputy Commissioners have been asked to
advise sarpanches concerned not to allow anyone in their respective
villages to burn crop residue," the officer said.
As a state
survey had reported that crop residue burning incidents occur in 587
villages, Likhi directed the Deputy Commissioners concerned to launch a
special campaign in such villages to make farmers aware.
The
burning of crop residue leads to air pollution in north Indian states of
Punjab and Haryana and National Capital Region-Delhi.
