Farmers of Chatha Nanhera village of Sangrur district,Punjab, putted approx 1,000 acres of the wheat stubble on fire in the last few days, giving a straight challenge to the government to put fine them. The villagers have decided to burn all the stubble in the fields only and not to pay the fine for it. After the officers got information about all this they reached the farms. But left the place soon when the villagers announced to gherao them from the Gurudwara's addressing system.
Bharatiya Kisan Union's (Sidhupur) village unit president, Ran Singh Chatha said “Officers prepare policies in AC offices. They do not know about the hardships farmers face. We do not have any alternative to stubble burning. We burnt around 470 to 480 acres of wheat stubble today, while 500 acres of stubble were set on fire last evening.” Farmers are sitting in the gurudwara and camping there. They are waiting for the officers. Gobind Singh, a farmer also mentioned “Let the officers come. We are prepared to face them. We will tell them that we do not have money. We will not allow assessment of our burnt stubble. If the authorities wants to jail us, let them do so.”
Chatha said the so called claims of the government to provide the farmers with happy seeders to dispose of stubble remained only on paper as officers never bothered to visit their village to help them out. He added “We do not have money. But the authorities want us to spend Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per acre to repeatedly plough stubble without offering any special financial help. How can we spend this much amount when we have to pay off our debts?"
Farmers stated officers were ignoring big industrial houses causing the maximum pollution, but harassing them as they did not have money to bribe the authorities. Deputy Commissioner APS Virk said, “The administration will take action as stubble burning is against norms.”
