1 week Ago By Shariq Majeed
Ludhiana: With the paddy harvesting season starting, the district administration assured that they have plans in place to check stubble burning . According to information from the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre , Ludhiana, 1,801 active fire events were reported in Ludhiana district between September 15 and November 30 last year, which was lowest in five years. A total of 5,804 cases were reported in 2021.
Last year, the district stood at number 11 among districts of the state in terms of stubble burning cases. Among the districts, Sangrur recorded maximum of 5,618 stubble burning cases, followed by Ferozepur at 3,398 and Bathinda at 2,972. At four, Pathankot had the minimum of such cases.
Even as Ludhiana registered 33% reduction in stubble burning cases, the district administration said that they had a strategy in place to check such cases in the ongoing Kharif season . Deputy commissioner Jitendra Jorwal said that they had collated data of areas where stubble burning incidents were reported last year and officers had been asked to focus on hotspots. He added that officers had also been asked to meet farmers during “Sarkar tuhade dwar” programme and farmers’ camps.
The DC said that they got machinery with farmers mapped, taking information on who had which machine and which farmer needed the machine and when. He added that they were sending voice and regular messages to around 41,000 farmers in the district, informing them about the machinery and asking them not to burn stubble. Meanwhile, officials in the district administration said that nodal and cluster officers had been asked to hold meetings with each other and share mobile numbers for better coordination.
They had also been asked to contact patwaris and SHOs concerned for joint patrolling and monitoring of fire incidents. “All cluster officers and nodal officers are to visit camps organised by the district administration and convey the message of ill-effects of stubble burning to farmers,” said an internal note of the civil administration. It added, “SDMs and DSPs are requested to jointly hold a meeting with SHOs concerned, alongwith cluster officers and nodal officers of their tehsil.
Concerned SHOs shall have the mobile number of cluster officer and nodal officer readily available and shall carry out joint patrolling to have a deterrent effect on stubble burning incidents.” The note calls for tie-ups between the nodal officer, cluster officers, SDMs and DSPs to check stubble burning. It reads that the chief agriculture officer is to provide a list of the villages where paddy is to be harvested to SDMs concerned.
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