Stubble burning: 332 villages in Haryana under red zone

Chandigarh, Sep 22 : With a view to further curb stubble burning, the Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department on Tuesday said it has identified red, yellow, orange and green zones in all districts on the basis of incidences of crop residue burning last year.

As many as 332 villages fall under the red zone, while 675 are in the yellow zone.

Additional Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal said the government has decided to provide financial assistance to all 11,311 farmers who have applied for agricultural implements under the crop residue management scheme – Promotion of Agricultural Mechanisation for In-Situ Management of Crop.

A total assistance of about Rs 155 crore at the rate of 50 per cent would be given.

The department would provide 454 balers, 5,820 super seeders, 5,418 zero till seed drills, 2,918 choppers or mulchers, 260 happy seeders, 389 straw management systems, 64 rotary slashers or shrub masters, 454 reversible mould ploughs and 288 reapers to the beneficiaries.

The state government had recently decided to give preference to small and marginal farmers in hiring of machinery from Custom Hiring Centres and in providing equipment to individual beneficiaries under the scheme.

A comprehensive plan to the tune of Rs 1,304.95 crore has been approved for crop residue management to prevent stubble burning in the state.

The plan includes a fusion of in-situ and ex-situ crop residue management techniques, apart from monitoring activities through a dedicated control room, and registration of FIRs against violators.

The central government provided Rs 170 crore to the state under this plan this year.

Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from IANS service.