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Farmers with 2-5 acres of land will have to pay Rs 10,000, while it has been increased to Rs 30,000 for farmers having an area of land of more than five acres.
In Punjab, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Muktsar and Patiala recorded the highest reduction, followed by Bathinda, Faridkot and Jalandhar. (PTI)
The Centre updated air quality management rules on Thursday, increasing the penalty for stubble burning, effective immediately. The notification came after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for ‘toothless environmental laws’ to curb Delhi’s deteriorating air quality every winter.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change amended the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (Imposition, Collection and Utilisation of Environmental Compensation for Stubble Burning) Rules, 2023.
The new rules authorise the CAQM to impose environmental compensation on farmers who are found burning paddy stubble, or there is evidence that stubble burning happened on their land. According to the notification, farmers having an area of land of less than two acres will pay an environmental compensation of Rs 5,000.
However, the penalty has been increased to Rs 10,000 for farmers having an area of land of two acres or more but less than five acres, and to Rs 30,000 for farmers having an area of land of more than five acres. The revised rules come into effect immediately.
The Supreme Court had recently pulled up the Centre for ‘toothless environmental laws’ and for not creating adequate machinery for implementing those laws to control pollution. The national capital gets blanketed by toxic smog every winter when levels of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations rise to dangerous levels creating a health emergency.
Stubble burning also contributes to it, along with rising levels of emissions from vehicles, industries and waste-burning in and around the national capital. The government has been urging farmers to shift to more sustainable ways of managing the stubble, which has also significantly brought down the number of fire counts over the years.
As many as 12,514 burning events were detected in the six states between September 15 and November 6, according to the satellite data monitored by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Majority of cases were reported from Punjab (5041), followed by Haryana (888), Uttar Pradesh (1544), Delhi (12), Rajasthan (1332) and Madhya Pradesh (3697). However, the number of fire counts in Punjab have dropped significantly from 19,463 reported last year to 5,041 this year.
Initially this year, between October 10 and 20, the average farm fire contribution to Delhi’s PM2.5 levels was only 0.7 per cent, indicating minimal impact from stubble burning to PM2.5 concentrations, but it increased to 16 per cent on October 23. Overall, the average winter level pollution in Delhi has increased over the years due to multiple sources.
Last month, the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for not formulating strict rules to tackle the issue of stubble burning across North India and said the Environment Protection Act had become “toothless”. The court said, “The Centre has not created any machinery and the Environment Protection Act has become toothless.”
The top court asked the Centre to notify new rules on punitive action against those engaging in stubble burning within 10 days.
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