500-Crore Action Plan to Tackle Stubble Burning in Punjab

Stubble Burning issue in punjab

Chandigarh, June 26: In a bid to bring stubble burning cases to zero in the state as per directions of Chief Minister  Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has laid out an action plan of Rs.500 crore for providing machinery and other measures during the paddy harvest season 2024.

Revealing this here today, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian informed that the department has received as many as 21,511 applications from farmers, cooperative societies, FPOs and panchayats interested in availing subsidies on various crop residue management (CRM) machinery during the kharif season 2024 and farmers have applied for 63,697 machines. Individual farmers can avail 50 per cent subsidy on the cost of CRM equipment, while, 80 per cent subsidy is for cooperative societies, FPOs, panchayats limited to a maximum as per the guidelines of the scheme, he added.

He said the scheme provides subsidies for super SMS, super seeder, surface seeder, smart seeder, happy seeder, paddy straw chopper, shredder, mulcher, hydraulic reversible mould board plough, zero till drill for in-situ management, and baler and rake for ex-situ machines.

As many as 1,30,000 CRM machines have been provided to farmers of the state from 2018-19 to 2023, S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian informed while adding that the Agriculture department would also launch an information education and communication campaign to educate and train farmers about the available technologies for the management of crop residues as the state government is taking every possible step to address the problem of stubble burning.

The Agriculture Minister also instructed department officials to ensure transparency in the entire process and warned that they would take strict action against any rule violations.