PremiumThe primary focus of the review meeting was to assess the on-ground implementation of directions and reiterate the need for immediate intensification of actions to put a halt to the sudden spike in the stubble burning cases
New Delhi: Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) held a meeting with the chief secretary of Punjab and deputy commissioners of 22 districts to review the status of implementation of measures to restrict farm fire counts in Punjab.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate,in a press release on Friday, said the primary focus of the review meeting was to assess the on-ground implementation of directions and reiterate the need for immediate intensification of actions to put a halt to the sudden spike in the stubble burning cases observed over the last few days in Punjab.
“The deputy commissioners of 10 districts namely Amritsar, Barnala, Bhatinda, Firozpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Tarn Taran and Patiala where more than 1,000 fire counts are reported, were specifically advised to pay special attention and focus on the implementation of the action plan," the ministry added.
The chief secretary and deputy commissioners of the 22 districts were also reminded of their earlier commitments to drastically bring down the farm fire counts in 2022 as compared to last year.
“During the review meeting, the chief secretary and deputy commissioners of the 22 districts assured that they will put their best foot forward to substantially bring down the rising farm fire incidents in Punjab. They also assured that a decline in stubble burning incidents is expected to be seen in the coming days," the ministry said.
CAQM held a meeting on Thursday take the call for further intensified actions to be implemented by all concerned in Delhi-NCR .
The Commission noted that due to unfavorable meteorological conditions with slower wind speed and rising farm fire incidents, it is considered necessary to implement Stage IV of GRAP – ‘Severe+’ Air Quality with immediate effect as a precautionary step to avoid further deterioration of overall air quality in the NCR. This, is in addition to the restrictive actions mentioned in Stage I, Stage II and Stage III of GRAP.