Pb’s 582 straw burning cases in a day highest for this year

Bathinda: Crop residue burning continues unabated in Punjab, in spire of the state government’s efforts to prevail upon farmers to shun the practice. In all, 582 stubble burning cases were recorded in the state on Saturday, the highest so far in the ongoing paddy harvesting season.
The season’s count has reached 3,696. Cases continue to be lower than previous years. On October 22 in 2020, the state recorded 1,341 cases. The figure was 1,111 in 2021. When it comes to the season’s total, the state had recorded 10,785 cases up to October 22 in 2020. The figure was 5,438 in 2021.

The border districts of Tarn Taran and Amritsar in Majha region of Punjab have recorded 1,929, or 52% of the total cases, so far this year. In all, 1,034 cases have been reported in Tarn Taran, 895 in Amritsar, 324 in Gurdaspur, 246 in Patiala, 214 in Kapurthala, 187 in Ferozepur, 169 in Jalandhar, 131 in Ludhiana, 107 in Sangrur, 101 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 83 in Moga, 30 in Fazilka, 29 in SAS Nagar, 26 each in Faridkot and Bathinda, 24 in Mansa, 18 each in Barnala and Roopnagar, 12 in Hoshiarpur, 11 in Malerkotla, nine in Muktsar, and two in SBS Nagar.
Nearly 32% paddy had arrived in the grain markets of Punjab till Saturday, so crop residue burning is expected to pick up. While the government plans to procure 190 lakh metric tonnes of paddy this year, nearly 60 lakh metric tonnes of the crop has arrived in grain markets of Punjab so far this year.