Under fire from the National Green Tribunal for not doing enough to tackle the air pollution menace in North India, the Central government on Friday said it has so far released a total of ₹200 crore to the States in the region to take measures to deal with crop residue burning.
Interestingly, the BJP-led NDA government also used this opportunity to take a dig at Punjab, currently ruled by the Congress. The data, released by the Agriculture Ministry showed that all North Indian States barring Punjab, have utilised funds available for environment-friendly disposal of crop residue. Crop residue burning, which farmers resort to prepare the field for next rabi crop, is most to blame for the worsening air pollution situation in the region, in general, and in the National Capital Region, in particular.
A senior Punjab government official admitted that the State has not been able to utilise the funds so far as the State government is yet to give the green signal. However, farmers have been informed of the subsidies available to them and many of them have already purchased those machines, he said.
According to him, Punjab has constituted a corpus of ₹165 crore for the purpose with the Centre contributing 60 per cent of the funds. During the last two years, the centre has allocated a total of ₹97.50 crore.
The release issued by the Agriculture Ministry said it has so far allocated a sum of ₹122.50 crore to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP in the current financial year. Similarly, a total of ₹73.85 crore was released to Punjab and UP last year.
The funds were meant to facilitate farmers to purchase suitable residue-management machines such as zero till seed drill, straw baler and paddy straw chopper.