CAQM Closely Monitoring Paddy Residue Burning Activities in NCR and Neighboring Areas

The review meetings were also held recently with 23 District Collectors / District Magistrates (DMs) of Punjab, 22 DMs/ DCs of Haryana, and 8 DMs/ DCs of NCR Districts of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) regarding the preparedness and implementation of an action plan for Prevention and Control of Paddy Straw Burning in 2022.

During the review meetings, the DCS/ DMs were briefed about their preparedness and informed that they have conducted meetings at their levels as well as with the nodal officers and will ensure that there is a substantial reduction in the number of stubble burning cases in their respective districts.

It was noted that about 31,700 Custom Hiring Centers and cooperatives have been set up in Punjab, Haryana, and UP (NCR), and more than 2 lakh CRM Machinery is available for utilization in Punjab, Haryana, and NCR Districts of U.P. The need to intensify IEC activities like educational campaigns, awareness camps and publicity through print, electronic and social media was emphasized.

The State Governments were advised that the monitoring/enforcement mechanism as envisaged in the plan of action at the State level/ District level/ Sub-divisional level/ Cluster and Village level must be effectively utilized.

The Commission has been actively monitoring paddy residue burning events for a month now i.e., from 15th September 2022 onwards in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and 8 NCR Districts of U.P. The current year has so far seen a reduction from 3431 to 1695 fire counts as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The total farm fire incidents reported in Punjab are 1444 as against 2375 incidents in 2021, in Haryana are 244 as compared to 1026 in the previous year, and in U.P. (NCR) are 5 as against 30 fire incidents during the corresponding period of 2021.

In the NCT of Delhi, 2 fire incidents have been reported this year. No fire incident has been reported from the two NCR Districts of Rajasthan. During the current harvesting season, the first paddy residue burning incident was reported on 15^th September in Punjab, on 18^th September in Haryana, on 30^th September in the NCR Districts of Uttar Pradesh, and on 05^th October in Delhi.