It’s that time of the year again when the National Capital Region chokes due to stubble burning primarily in two states — Punjab and Haryana. But it is also a case study of absolute contrast between ‘chalta hai’ attitude of the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab and the Nayab Singh Saini government in Haryana which may have gone out of its way to appease farmers during the campaign season but is in a no-nonsense mode now to deal with this menace.
HYPERACTIVE HARYANA
The police in Haryana’s Kaithal district said on Monday that they arrested as many as 18 farmers in the last two days for burning crop residue. However, Kaithal SP Rajesh Kalia told reporters that the farmers were later released on bail. The immediate action was visible as soon as Saini was sworn in as Chief Minister. In fact, in a refreshingly swift action, district administrations across the state have also blacklisted more than 400 farmers for indulging in burning stubble that heavily contributes to NCR’s air pollution every year around Diwali.
Nayab Singh Saini has made it clear that the overtures to farmers of the election season are over and illegal activities in spite of warnings will be adequately dealt with. Data from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare shows 327 farmers have received challans so far with a total of Rs 8.32 lakh having been collected in fines.
The fact that the Saini administration is not joking can be gauged from the number of such FIRs registered so far at 93.
THE PUNJAB STORY
The Punjab Story of stubble burning remains the major worry. The stubble-burning season has just started and till now, 1,393 farm fires were detected by satellites in the state. But unlike Saini, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has made it a matter of political blame game.
“The issue of stubble burning is not limited to any one state. It is an issue for the whole of Northern India. If PM Modi can stop the Ukraine war like they showed in the ad, can they not stop the smoke here? He should make all the states sit together, give compensation, call scientists,” Bhagwant Mann said, bringing down the seriousness of the matter and seemingly sliding the health concern of lakhs of NCR residents.
Even while the Supreme Court came down hard on both the states, Mann chose his own logic, “We don’t know if Punjab’s smoke reaches Delhi or not but the smoke harms the farmer and his village first.”
However, the real Punjab story is neither in extremes of black or white but in grey. The stubble burning in Punjab itself is a big problem but has over the years shown a slowing trend. From 83,002 fires in 2020, the count in Punjab dropped to 71,304 in 2021, 49,922 in 2022, and further to 36,663 in 2023. But even though these statistics are way slow in terms of public health for those living in Delhi NCR, they are enough to make the SC angry and ask for a coordinated approach.
Arrests have been made here and challans have been issued in Punjab as well. But as BJP leader RP Singh pointed out, “As long as Punjab was Congress ruled, Kejriwal-ruled Delhi found the bulk of the pollution problem with Punjab. But the moment the AAP won Punjab, it had to look the other way.”
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