Why Punjab Farmers Are Not Using Machines Provided By Centre To Remove Stubble, Here's What Supreme Court Was Told

The Supreme Court on Thursday (3 October) continued to hear the petitions over stubble burning and questioned what action has been taken against offenders to ensure compliance.

Justice Abhay Oka questioned, "Your own records show that in Punjab there are 129 cases of illegal stubble burning and only Rs 1.25 lakh fine has been recovered from 42 persons in Punjab."

Suggesting that this fine is nominal, as it comes to an average of Rs 3,000 per person, he noted that there is not a single prosecution under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act, the LiveLaw reported.

In his defence, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati said, "We are not getting utilisation data of the machines (which are provided by the Centre to remove stubble so their burning will not be required)."

"If the centre has provided the machinery why is the state not making it available to the small and marginal farmers?" the ASG questioned to which Punjab's Attorney General responded.

"The problem is machine is available it is being given free of cost to the farmer who wants to use it. But they are able to use it because 70 per cent of the farmers in Punjab are marginal (having less than 10 acres of land)," he said.

"They will have to employ a driver and use diesel in that machine which they are not willing to do," he added seeking Rs 1,200 crore from the centre about Rs 375 crore each from Punjab and Delhi.

Justice Oka infuriated, "So what you are trying to tell is that we will do nothing unless we get money from the central government of India. Unless penal action starts and the grassroots level, the issue will not be resolved."

"Unless the people know that penal action will be taken they are not going to stop this. There is no fear. Machines are there but they are not going to use the machines. It is as simple as that," he added.