FEROZEPUR: More than 200 farm fires incidents have been reported in this border district this year till now, and 165 FIRs have been registered in this connection. Of the total FIRs registered, 148 have been registered in the past seven days only, indicating a spurt in these incidents during the past week. However, most of these FIRs have been registered against unidentified persons only.
Though the state government has been claiming regular monitoring and stringent action, the fact remains till now it has not been able to control the farm fires, and in most of the cases, the offenders go scotfree.
Last year, 3,398 farm fire incidents were reported while 4,295 cases in 2022, 6,272 cases in 2021 and 5,960 cases were reported in 2020.
There is around 1,83,530 hectares agricultural land in the district, of which 1,52,000 hectares is under paddy cultivation. A total of 31,530 hectares is being used for growing basmati.
Baldev Singh Zira, state president, Bharti Kisan Union (Krantikari), said farmers were being defamed for no fault of theirs. “The Marginal farmers have no option but to burn the residue, as they are not resourceful enough,” said Zira, adding that there was no support from the government either. .
He said that the farmer’s produce was lying in grain markets for past many days, and the next crop has to be sown before November 15. “The more we will get late in sowing, the yield will reduce, and the hapless farmers will have to bear the brunt,” said Satwinder Singh of Toot village. He added that in such conditions they were left with no option but to burn the crop residue.
Moura Singh Anjan, a farmer leader, said the ground reality belied the tall claims made by the government, with the dismal ongoing procurement drive being an evidence of the same. “For the past 27 days, farmers have been suffering due to poor lifting, and they are worried about sowing the next crop,” he said. Another Farmer, Maggar Singh, said they were biting dust in mandis, adding that they did not have time to hire and use machines. “Most of the subsidies and other benefits are pocketed by influential lot only,” he said.
DC Deepshika Sharma said special teams had been constituted to visit the sites from where farm fires are reported. “We receive a report from the PPCB daily which is forwarded to the Agricultural Department for the physical verification,” she said.
Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Jangir Singh said one nodal officer had been deputed in each village while one cluster officer had been deputed for 11 villages. “Their duty is to make the villagers aware about stubble burning and report the farm fire incidents to the department,” said the official.