Follow Haryana, offer farmers incentives to stop stubble burning: SC to Punjab
SC slams Delhi, Punjab; says if Delhi government does not come up with funds for Delhi-Meerut RRTS in a week, funds should be taken from AAP’s ad allocation
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 21) severely reprimanded the Punjab and Delhi governments — both run by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — regarding the issue of air pollution resulting from stubble burning and said they should take lessons from the neighbouring Haryana, which provides incentives to farmers to adopt other methods to deal with agricultural residue.
The apex court is hearing a bunch of petitions about the toxic air that chokes Delhi every winter. “This is the most polluted November in six years... The problem is known (and) it is your job to control it,” the bench of Justices SK Kaul and S Dhulia told Punjab, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by the BJP, as is Haryana.
Court sympathy for farmers
The court was, however, not ready to pin the blame on the farmers in Punjab. “The farmer is being made a villain... and he is not being heard from. He must have some reason to burn this stubble,” the court said, asking the Punjab government to consider offering incentives to farmers, like Haryana, to not burn the crop residue.
The apex court did not take too kindly to the Punjab government when it argued that the state police had filed 984 FIRs against farmers and landlords for stubble burning and 8,481 meetings had been held to discourage farmers from doing so.
“Pay from ad allocations”
The Supreme Court was also irked by the Delhi government’s delay in funding the Delhi-Meerut RRTS (regional rapid transport system) and ordered that the funds be taken from the AAP’s spending on advertisements to showcase its achievements instead.
“You have not complied with our order. We don’t have any other way. You can’t take us for granted...,” said the irate apex court, which, in July, had chided the Delhi government for saying it had no funds for the proposed railway network that is expected to reduce vehicular traffic.
The court has granted the Delhi government a week to comply with its order. “If Delhi government doesn’t pay the RRTS amount within a week, the funds will be transferred from its advertisements allocations,” the court has warned.
