Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan acknowledged within the Rajya Sabha on Friday that attributing Delhi-NCR’s winter air pollution primarily to stubble burning in neighbouring states like Haryana and Punjab isn’t correct.
Citing research-based research, he stated stubble burning contributes solely round 5 per cent to Delhi’s winter air pollution, with the bulk attributable to industries, older autos, and different native sources.
“Authorities acknowledges the hurt triggered by stubble burning; due to this fact, it gives a 50 per cent subsidy on equipment and 80 per cent for customized hiring centres beneath the Crop Residue Administration (CRM) scheme,” Chouhan stated.
“Over 3.5 lakh machines have been given to farmers throughout northern and central states resembling Haryana, Punjab, western UP and Madhya Pradesh, considerably decreasing such incidents,” he added.
He praised Haryana’s mannequin of providing per-acre incentives to farmers for not burning stubble, calling it the “finest mannequin”.
“Stubble is being transformed right into a invaluable useful resource for pellets, thermal energy, biomass, bio-CNG and fuels within the state,” he stated.
Defending farmers, Congress chief Jairam Ramesh criticised the “vilification” of farmers and posted on X, “At the moment, within the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare acknowledged categorically that stubble burning was answerable for simply round 5 per cent of the air pollution load. The vilification of farmers for inflicting air pollution should cease.
”Chouhan highlighted a number of central authorities initiatives, together with the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, which has established over 44,000 customized hiring centres, 25,000 major processing centres, 17,000 warehouses, and three,000 chilly storage models.
These measures, he stated, have helped scale back annual post-harvest losses incurred by farmers by 5–15 per cent.
Evaluating procurement information, Chouhan famous, “Underneath UPA rule, solely 6 lakh metric tonnes of pulses have been procured in 10 years, whereas the Modi authorities procured 1 crore 92 lakh metric tonnes.”
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