Recuperating CM Mann chairs meeting to check paddy straw management

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday reviewed the state government’s preparedness to tackle paddy stray management and underlined the need for a sustained campaign to make the farmers aware about the paddy straw management to further reduce the incidents of paddy straw burning in the state.

Chairing a review meeting, Mann, who was discharged after getting discharged from hospital on Sunday, said that the farmers must be made aware of the hazards of paddy straw burning so that they opt for subsidy on straw management equipment. He added that farmers must also be informed about reduction in cost of managing straw through Custom Hiring Centres, advocating the need for setting up more such centres on Panchayats land.

Mann claimed that there had been a significant decrease in fire incidents. There has been a reduction of 30 % in the no of fire incidents (71,159) in 2022-23 as compared to 76,929 in 2021-22 and a reduction of 26 % in the no of fire incidents (49,922) in 2023-24 as compared to 71,159 in 2022-23. Likewise, a total reduction of 52 % in fire incidents has been observed in 2023-24 as compared to 2020-21, he said.

Mann, meanwhile, directed the deputy commissioners to launch a vigorous campaign to make farmers aware of the hazards of paddy straw burning. Mann said that under the crop residue management scheme 2024-25, the agriculture department had already called for applications from interested farmers in availing subsidy under the scheme through agrimachinerypb.com portal. A total of 63,904 number of applications for machinery were received upto June 20, 2024.

“As per the demand of the districts, the portal was opened again from September 13 to September 19 and 1.07 lakh cumulative applications have been received till September 19. The state government has set a target of distributing 14,000 machines to individual farmers and establishment of 1100 custom hiring centres in the districts,” he said.

Mann said that the state government has also launched Unnat Kisan mobile application as a one-stop platform for farmers to easily avail crop residue management (CRM) machines ahead of paddy harvesting season-2024. “The application enables farmers to easily book a machine from the available custom hiring centres in their vicinity adding that for more facilitation," he said.