Concerned states effectively utilize Rs 600 crore made available to them this fiscal to achieve the desired goals, said Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
New Delhi: Amid reports of rising pollution due to stubble burning in Punjab and other neighbouring states, Centre on Wednesday asked the Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments to strive for achieving zero stubble burning in near future. Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, in a meeting, promised all central help to achieve the goal and added that this is a kind of curse on these states, as they receive a lot of public ire due to negative media publicity.
The minister said that Rs 600 crore was already provided to the states this financial year and they have the unspent amount of Rs 300 crore, which should be utilized properly. Additionally, about two lakh machines have been made available to the states. “The Centre and the concerned states should jointly evolve a long-term planning and must undertake multi-pronged activities to achieve the target of zero stubble burning within a specified time-frame,” he said.
Tomar told the officials of the states to strengthen and widen the IEC activities to make aware the farmers that stubble burning leads to loss of soil fertility in the long run, like the overuse of urea. He urged the officials to make arrangements to take the farmers to the sites, where the Pusa decomposer developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is being used for practical demonstrations.
According to the report, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is continuing the implementation of the central sector scheme on ‘promotion of agricultural mechanization for in-situ management of crop residue in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi’ during 2022-23 with an outlay of Rs 700 crore. So far, an amount of Rs 240 crore, Rs 191.53 crore, Rs 154.29 crore and Rs 14.18 crore have already been released to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and ICAR, respectively as first instalment. During the current year, provisions have also been incorporated to promote the use of bio-decomposer technology on large scale in these states.
The scheme was introduced in 2018-19, with the aim of addressing air pollution in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) due to stubble burning in the adjoining States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue. Under this scheme financial assistance for purchase of crop residue management machines is provided at the rate of 50 per cent of the cost to individual farmers and 80 per cent of the project cost to cooperative societies of farmers, PFOs and panchayats for establishment of custom hiring centres of crop residue management machines.
The Scheme promotes the usage of machines such as super straw management systems, happy seeder, super seeder, zero till seed cum fertilizer drill, mulcher, paddy straw chopper, hydraulically reversible mould board plough, crop reapers and reaper binders for in-situ management of crop residue and balers & rakes which are used for straw collection in the form of bales for other ex-situ uses of straw. ‘Smart seeder’ machine has been newly added for promotion under the scheme.
