MLA Kuljit Singh Randhawa and Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain felicitated the 50 farmers as Ambassadors of Environment Protection for managing stubble without burning. In an impressive function held at Nahar Industrial Premises Lehli in Derabassi Sub Division by the District Administration with the help of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, the MLA Derabassi Kuljit Singh Randhawa said that we need to promote such role models by describing their experiences to sensitise the other farmers too.
He said that we should follow simple farm practices instead of costly measures so that we can live a life free of debt and other miseries. He said the efforts made by the Bhagwant Mann Government to save the depleting water table by promoting direct seeding of paddy by paying incentives is commendable.
He said that we should not set the crop residue on fire which is not good for the health of soil and our flora and fauna. He said that the efforts put in by the torchbearers (the farmers who shun farm fires) need to be followed by others too. He also appealed to the management of Nahar Industries to accommodate the local youths by providing them with the employment at mill.
Recognising the request of MLA Randhawa, the Executive Director of Nahar Group, Abhinav Oswal inducted a young man into the sport as an opening to the noble cause.Deputy Commissioner Mrs Aashika Jain while applauding the efforts of the farmers honoured today, said that the purpose of the event is to propagate the strong message of managing the stubble without setting it on fire.
The district administration is fully geared up to combat the bad practice of farm fires by making available crop residue management machinery to the farmers. For this, the agricultural and cooperation departments have been asked to map the available machinery with the farmers so that they do need not to adopt the other way. PPCB officials and local police officials have also been asked to make the farmers aware of the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal’s stringent orders against burning the paddy straw.
She said that we are focusing on those areas that had plenty of cases last year. She said that the graph of fire incidents is going down year by year as the farmers are shunning the bad practice of setting the stubble on fire.On this occasion, farmers like Harjit Singh, Bhupinder Singh Badarpur, Tarjinder Singh Saidpur and Kulwinder Singh Sohana shared their experiences of managing stubble without setting it on fire.
Among the farmers who felicitated included Harjit Singh Dhiremajra, Gurlala Singh Dharamgarh, Jai Singh Jandli, Pardeep Singh, Kewal Krishan, Navjot Singh Dhiremajra and Kamalpreet Singh.Among the Officers present there included ADC (G) Viraj S Tidke, SDM Derabassi Dr Himanshu Gupta, ASP Derabassi Jayant Puri, Environment Engineer Rantej Sharma, Chief Agricultural Officer Gurmail Singh and Tehsildar Birkaran Singh.