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IMPORTANT NEWSCLIPPINGS (24-Apr-17)

Date: 24-04-17

Stop crop burning

Instead of just fining Punjab and Haryana farmers, give them profitable
alternatives too
In a week or so wheat harvesting will end in Punjab and
Haryana and it will be time to get the fields ready for paddy
planting in the monsoon. This is a very worrying time for the
larger neighbourhood including Delhi, because if farmers
ready their fields by burning stubble, the dark smoke clouds
that rise as a result travel far and wide, carrying in their wake
severe air pollution. Once again the Environment Pollution
Control Authority has directed both state governments to
ensure that there is no wheat stubble burning. Chief ministers
Amarinder Singh and Manohar Lal Khattar must ensure that
this time their state machinery fulfils the EPCA directive.

On the upside there is evidence that both governments are now doing more stringent monitoring but on the
downside this seems to be just driving many farmers to burn the stubble covertly or claim that their field fires
are accidental. This reflects poorly on measures to provide farmers convenient and profitable alternatives to
burning stubble. For example, subsidies for agri equipment, such as happy seeder or rotavor that can sow seeds
without the need to remove the remains of stubble, havent reached most farmers not to mention that these
subsidies are accompanied by cumbersome formalities.

The track record is even worse when it comes to commericalising the stubble for animal feed, packaging and
paper industries, power generation, etc. Both Punjab and Haryana governments have been unconscionably
laggard on this front. This must change. Remember that burning stubble doesnt just cause respiratory diseases
and worsen greenhouse gas emissions, it causes severe heat stress on the farmland itself, with one rough
estimate being that it destroys soil nutrients worth up to Rs 2,000 crore every year.But speaking of
laggardness, when stubble is burnt and a soupy smog rises, when city chemists run short of protective masks
and a public health crisis grows, Indias National Air Quality Index cannot even provide a reliable measurement
as it doesnt have enough monitoring stations and even the existing ones dont monitor for all important
pollutants. It has one air quality monitor for the entire metropolis of Mumbai as compared to Londons 100.
From Centre to states, solutions to curb crop burning and clean the air are well known. Whats needed is the
political resolve to deliver these solutions.
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Date: 24-04-17

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