Give free tools to farmers to prevent stubble burning: Human rights body

New Delhi:

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) held a third round of meetings by video conference on Friday with the chief secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh asking them to provide a detailed report on how to prevent air pollution in Delhi. NCR region.

The meeting was held with the chief secretaries of four states via video conference chaired by NHRC Chairman Judge Arun Kumar Mishra on air pollution as the national capital and the NCR region remains blanketed in a heavy blanket of smog.

At the latest hearing, the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were called upon to control air pollution in Delhi NCR.

At today’s meeting, all the secretaries, while sharing the report, presented many more facts on the same issues. Now the next hearing has been set for November 25.

While speaking to ANI, NHRC spokesperson Jaimini Kumar Srivastava said a detailed discussion was held about burning stubble, which is one of the biggest reasons for the poor air quality.

“The Commission had a discussion on how the poor farmers at panchayat and body level can get the equipment free of charge so that they can harvest the paddy properly and on time. Those who have the capacity to buy equipment should be made available at a low price, cost, so that farmers are not forced to burn stubble,” he said.

Srivastava further said that apart from this, the Commission has also asked the governments to equip the sanitation facilities of the states with proper equipment.

“Whether it’s the waste from hospitals or the dust on the roads, which increases air pollution, it needs to be managed. The Commission has asked for details on how many mechanized devices there are to reduce the pollution caused by stubble burning and in what capacity they In many states of the country, various topics such as pollution caused by stubble burning and death of sanitation workers, etc., “said a spokesman for the NHRC.

At the latest hearing, the Commission reprimanded the governments of four states, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, holding them responsible for the mismanagement of ‘stubble burning’ after hearing the version of the chief secretaries of the respective states.

NHRC heard the chief secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh on Thursday in connection with the suo motu knowledge of unabated air pollution in Delhi-NCR, as reported in the media. “The Commission, after considering the responses of the concerned states and the Government of NCT of Delhi, and deliberating thereon, believes that the farmers are being forced to burn stubble,” NHRC said in a press release.

In issuing the verdict, the National Human Rights Commission noted that the governments of the aforementioned states have failed to address the recurrent problem of stubble burning leading to a deterioration in air quality.

“State governments have been required to provide harvesters to get rid of that stubble, but they have not provided enough machinery and other measures, with the result that farmers have been forced to burn the stubble, causing pollution,” the commission said. , adding that none of the states can blame the farmers for stubble burning, instead it is due to the failure of all four state governments that the stubble burning occurs in the four states and creates massive airborne pollutants.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)