New Delhi, 09 November: On the instructions of the Supreme Court, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba held an emergency meeting with the Chief Secretaries and other senior officials of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi on Wednesday.
After detailed discussion in the meeting, the Cabinet Secretary directed the Punjab Government to take effective action to prevent incidents of stubble burning in the remaining days of this crop season.
Instructions were also given to fix the responsibilities of DC, DM, SSP and SHO to stop the incidents of stubble burning. Along with this, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has been asked to send flying squads to Punjab and Haryana and submit daily reports about the status of incidents of fire in fields.
Cabinet Secretary found in the review meeting that the current crisis situation in Delhi is mainly due to stubble burning. On November 8, stubble burning contributed 38 percent to the air pollution level. A total of 22,644 incidents of stubble burning were recorded in the period from September 15 to November 7, of which 20978 (93 per cent) occurred in Punjab and 1605 (7 per cent) in Haryana.
During the discussion it also came to light that more than 90 percent harvesting has been completed in Haryana while 60 percent has been completed in Punjab. Therefore now there is a need to take strict action to stop this.
The Cabinet Secretary directed the State Governments of Punjab and Haryana to make full use of the available seeder machines to prevent stubble burning. About 1.20 lakh seeder machines are available in Punjab and 76,000 in Haryana under the CRM scheme.
The Chairman of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and Secretaries of the Ministries of Environment, Forest, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Affairs and Power were also present in the meeting.
