Chandigarh: Even as there seemed to be no letup in the incidence of farm fires in Punjab, the government has begun to issue show-cause notices to deputy commissioners (DCs) and the district police chiefs for their ``failure’’ to check the incidence of stubble burning in their respective districts.
While nine DCs were issued show-cause notices on Thursday, as many as 11 senior superintendent of police (SSPs) were served similar notices on Friday.
According to information, the DCs – of Barnala, Sangrur, Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Ludhiana and Moga – were served notices as there were said to be more than 100 incidents of farm fires in a day.
Notice takes serious note of DCs' failure to implement action plan
According to reports, the notice took a serious note of the DCs’ failure to implement an action plan to check the incidence of the stubble burning as well as failure to take any action against the field officers responsible for the same.
Likewise, the SSPs of Barnala, Bathinda, Jagraon, Khanna, Sangrur, Muktsar, Moga, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Fazilka have also been served with the show-cause notice.
Meetings with panchayat leaders
Meanwhile, according to official information, while the police had held about 7,000 meetings with the panchayat leaders so as to make them aware of the adverse impact of the farm fires on the soil and environment, about 1,000 joint flying squads of police and civil officers have also been formed to check the incidence of stubble burning.
According to information, the official agencies have so far issued a fine worth Rs 1.42 crore on the farmers found flouting the orders against burning paddy crop residue.
Meanwhile, even as the state has already seen over 33,000 incidents of farm fires during this paddy so far, there were about 7,00 cases reported on Saturday, while the number of the same on Friday was 1,150 and 1,271 on Thursday. The incidence of the farm fires is likely to continue in the next few days as there the paddy harvest is continuing in the state.
