THREE FARMERS BOOKED FOR BURNING CROPS RESIDUE IN FEROZEPUR

Ferozepur: A case has been registered against three farmers for burning crop residue in this border district in two different cases at Lakho ke Behram police station. In first incident, police has booked a farmer identified as Balwinder Singh alias Fouji, resident of Village Karinkalan near Ferozepur following which a case under sections 188 IPC was registered at Lakho ke Behram police station. In other case police has booked Satnam Singh and Paramjit Singh of Village Mathar Hithar for burning crop residue. It is pertinent to mention here that the farmers belonging to this border region are up in arms against the state government over stubble burning issue and defying odds to the instructions of the state government and National Green Tribunal, farmers in this district have decided to burn the crop residue. Farmer’s union leaders Avtar Singh, Gurbans Singh, Harjinder Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Sukhmander Singh, Bikkar Singh, Nirmal Singh, Gyan Singh and other farmers said that the government can never understand the real problems faced by the farmers. “First the government should provide proper infrastructure or should provide some money to the poor farmers then such instructions should be issued. How a poor farmer can manage to store the crop residue”, said union leaders. The farmers also alleged that they are being victimized for no reason. “Why everyone is blaming stubble burning for air pollution. There are lots of other reasons for air pollution also but I fail to understand why the farmers are being targeted every time”, said Avtar Singh Mehma another union leader. Yesterday, the farmers also handed over a memorandum to Swaran Singh, Market Officer demanding financial assistance to store crop residue. It is pertinent to mention here that Central Pollution Control Board has implemented an emergency action plan to combat air pollution. Under the emergency plan called Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), stringent actions are implemented based on the air quality of the city. Recently satellite pictures from NASA have shown rampant burning activity in Punjab and Haryana. NASA has also stated that the burning of the crops has increased significantly over the last ten days in Punjab and Haryana