Punjab: Fire brigade, Agriculture Dept teams extinguish fire set to stubble in Moga district

Moga (Punjab) [India], November 5 : As the process of setting fire to stubble by the farmers continued near Mahimawala village and Mehron village in Punjab's Moga district, the fire brigade team and agriculture department team reached the spot and extinguished the stubble fire, said an official from the Agriculture Department.

Agriculture Development Officer, Yashpreet Kaur, said, "We have been visiting the farms since last week. If we see a fire on a farm, we contact the owner of the land to get the fire extinguished. If the fire reaches beyond the control of the landowner, the team that has been constituted for fire control by the district administration accompanies us and helps us out. Today also, they have come with us and helped us out."
Multiple farmers from the area, while talking to ANI, also said that they do not want to burn the stubble, and they understand that it is harmful for the environment, but they do not have any other option, so they are under the compulsion to do so.
Stubble burning in Punjab and other adjacent states of Delhi is one of the main causes of deteriorating air quality in the city.
As air quality in several parts of Delhi-NCR plunged to 'severe' category on Friday morning, people said they experienced breathing problems and irritation in the eye, among others.
Meanwhile, Haryana Development and Panchayat Minister Devender Singh Babli, speaking on action against stubble-burning offenders, said, "Our government has appealed to the farmers and tried to make them aware. Wherever the stubble was burned, we have also taken action against it. I want to tell the farmers that burning the stubble damages the land, and the damage to the environment affects all of us."

He further said, "We have controlled the stubble burning to a great extent, but we still need to work on it. Hardly 10-20 percent are still burning stubble; the numbers came down because of the government schemes and compensation provided to the farmers."
Earlier this week, Agriculture Department officials in the Moga district of Punjab said that 321 farmers in the district indulged in stubble burning, and they went to the fields of 205 farmers and imposed a fine against them.
He said that fire brigade vehicles are also present in all four assembly constituencies of the district, and as soon as the agriculture officials get information, they go to the spot and extinguish the fire.