Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has taken a stance defending farmers ahead of the post-harvest season, during which northern states, particularly the Delhi-NCR cluster, see deadly pollution that’s partly blamed on paddy stubble burning. He trained his guns at the BJP-ruled Centre, and took a cross-border dig too, targeting his counterpart from Pakistan’s Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz.
He said he’s not in favour of registering cases against farmers who choose to burn the crop residue.
They suggest registering FIRs,” the AAP leader said, speaking at a Kisan Mela at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana on Friday. He mentioned Maryam Nawaz, Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, saying she intended to write to him regarding smoke affecting Lahore. “Is it only our smoke in the air? Do the emissions from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh not contribute?
“The Centre says Punjab has contributed 180 lakh metric tonnes of paddy to the central pool. But they do not consider how much stubble comes from the 180 lakh MT.
They are merely trying to defame Punjab,” he said.
Farm union leaders linked Mann’s statement to the assembly elections due in six months. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan urged the government to first cancel any FIRs already registered against farmers for stubble burning. BKU (Lakhowal) leader Harinder Singh Lakhowal echoed the sentiment that the government should provide cash incentives to farmers for managing stubble burning.
Mann said he has conveyed to the Centre that farmers do not wish to burn the straw, as the smoke affects them directly. He reiterated that he has told the BJP government that farmers should be given financial incentives for managing it.
