Presenting the Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced a scheme to address air pollution in Delhi. Under the scheme, the Centre would provide subsidies on machinery for management of crop residue.
Presenting the Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced a scheme to address air pollution in Delhi. Under the scheme, the Centre would provide subsidies on machinery for management of crop residue.
"Air Pollution in Delhi NCR is a cause for concern, the special scheme will be implemented to support governments of Haryana, Punjab,UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidise machinery for management of crop residue," Jaitley said in his Budget speech.
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Stubble burning is one of the biggest causes for air pollution in Delhi-NCR region. In October-November last year, when pollution in Delhi reached an alarming level, the Haryana and Punjab governments had imposed a ban on burning paddy residue, with erring farmers subject to prosecution on their failure to toe the official line.
However, the high cost of agricultural residue burning machinery and lack of an alternative mechanism proved to be biggest hurdles in the implementation of the ban on burning paddy stubble in the two states.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had also opposed the move saying that farmers did not have funds to dispose of the crop residue.
He had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene, saying it could not be tackled through means such as coercion requested Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab government to stop stubble burning.
He had written to Modi, seeking compensation for the farmers for crop resident management to check the dangerous trend of stubble burning. He had sought a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal as an incentive to compensate the farmers to manage crop residue scientifically.
Scientific management and disposal of paddy straw entails significant cost for the farmer and he naturally prefers the cheaper and easy solution of burning the crop residue, he said, adding that there are at present no technical or biological systems for managing this farm operation that are economically attractive to the farmer.
In Haryana and Punjab, the stubble burning problem persists each year around October-November in the paddy belt.
Burning of paddy residue causes air pollution, smog and also lead to serious medical problems such as breathing issues, allergies and asthma attacks.
It causes emission of smoke and toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide. It also leads to poor soil health as the phenomenon eliminates essential nutrients, experts said.
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