Taking the strict view of the spurt in farm fire incidents yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Aashika Joan today convened an emergent meeting of the Senior Superintendent of Police and other administrative officers deputed for curbing the incidents.
Sending a strong signal to all the stakeholders, the Deputy Commissioner said that from now onwards, the Nodal Officers and concerned SHO/Beat Officer would have to face judicial court action as per the recent directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management (NCR and adjoining areas), in case remains reluctant to curb the fire incidents.
The Commission in its order dated October 10, 2024, has said, “In exercise of the powers conferred upon the Commission under Section L4(2), the Deputy Commissioners / District Collectors / District Magistrates in the States of Punjab, Haryana, NCR areas of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and in the NCT of Delhi are hereby authorized to file a complaint/ prosecution before jurisdictional judicial magistrate.
In case of inaction in respect of officials, including nodal officers and supervisory officers at various levels and Station House Officers, responsible for effective enforcement towards ensuring elimination of paddy stubble burning in their respective jurisdiction”.
The Deputy Commissioner while taking incident incident-wise review of the farm fire incidents that occurred yesterday, said that the reluctance in duty on any part would not be tolerated. All the responsible persons including officers would have to file a reply on violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court, National Green Tribunal and Commission for Air Quality Management.
She said that despite having a fleet of subsidised stubble management machinery, the occurrence of the burning of stubble incidents is not tolerable. Directing the SDMs to increase the penetration of these machines to the farmers, the Deputy Commissioner said that all the nodal officers should have been more vigilant to avert the farm fire incidents.
The Deputy Commissioner urged the Senior Superintendent of Police to active the field police officers to work more diligently. She also requested the SSP to attach police personnel with the Fire Tenders deputed to douse the fire flames to prevent the resistance of the farm owners.
SSP SAS Nagar, Deepak Pareek while giving assurance to the Deputy Commissioner of the active participation of field police officers, said that the SHOs and beat officers would be instructed and warned immediately to work in coordination with district administration officers to ensure the prevention of burning incidents.
The officers who attended the meeting included ADC (General) Viraj S Tidke, ADC (Development) Sonam Chaudhary, SP (Rural) Manpreet Singh, SP (Urban) Harveer Singh Atwal, SDM Mohali Damandeep Kaur, SDM Derabassi Amit Gupta, SDM Kharar Gurmandar Singh, Deputy Registrar (Cooperative Societies) Gurbir Singh Dhillon, Executive Engineer PPCB Rantej Sharma and Chief Agricultural Officer Dr Gurmail Singh and others.