The Commission for Air-Quality Management (CAQM) issued an order last Friday with some interesting recommendations to eliminate stubble burning in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh by the end of the year. These recommendations include the formation of a new ‘Parali Protection Force’ to petrol fields in the dark, a common fixed price of paddy straw, etc. The aim of the CAQM’s new orders is to fully eliminate stubble burning fully and formulate an air pollution control strategy in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas.

Recommendations

The CAQM also urged the Delhi and Rajasthan governments to make efforts in tackling stubble burning, which is one of the major contributors to annual winter pollution levels in the national capital region. According to the new recommendations, the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh must map every village farm and tag a nodal officer for not more than 50 farmers. The work of this nodal officer will be to junk outdated Crop Management machines (CMM) and finish new procurement by August.

The states are also requested to make the CRM machines rent-free for small and marginal farmers through agricultural facilities.

Other interesting recommendations include optimal use of baler crackers for NCT management, a plan for storage facilities, parcel of government or Panchayat land to be identified for storage of paddy, an online platform for real-time monitoring of crop rescue and its utilisation, promotion of various government scheme to execute management, setting up of a pilot paddy straw based boiler in industrial units and so on.