Delhi pollution: SC bats for use of technology to detect and douse farm fires

SC bats for tech to stop farm fire

The Supreme Court on November 10 suggested that the relevant stakeholders at Delhi and adjoining two states use technology to detect and douse farm fires to reduce pollution. The apex court has directed all the stake holders to comply with the immediate steps suggested at the meeting held under the aegis of cabinet secretary pursuant to the court orders. Court further left it to the wisdom of the state administrations to adopt modalities to bring down farm fires.

The court further clarified that it was not singling out Punjab as a contributor to farm fire but since the percentage of farm fires were more in Punjab, it had sought for the state's response on the issue. Furthermore, the apex court clarified that Punjab government had not sought for cutting Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy but had only suggested giving alternatives to paddy.

During the course of the hearing, the  Punjab government told the apex court that it was taking all possible action to bring down the farm fires, the court has duly noted the same in its order.

The case will now come up for hearing on November 21

On November 7, the top court came down heavily on Punjab for not being able to curtail crop burning. The court passed a series of direction to Delhi and adjacent states to reduce air pollution, which included operationalising the smog tower in the capital, directions to stop crop burning, among others.

Directions to Punjab and adjoining states:

The Supreme Court directed Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana to stop crop burning immediately to check the threatening level of air pollution in the Capital. The responsibility of preventing crop burning will be on the local station house officer, chief secretaries, and the directors general of police of these states.

To carry out these directions, the cabinet secretary had been asked to convene a meeting of all stake holders immediately and convey the outcome of this meeting to the court on November 10.

Punjab suggests phasing out paddy:

On November 7, the Punjab government told that crop burning may reduce if paddy cultivation is slowly phased out in the state by reducing incentives for the crop.

The state government told the court that Punjab's water table is coming down drastically because of paddy cultivation and the crop is not even consumed in the state. The apex court agreed with the suggestion and asked the union government to explore the possibility of giving minimum support price for the alternative crops rather than giving it for paddy.

The apex court also highlighted the misuse of minimum support price (MSP), given by the central government in Punjab. According to the order "paddy grown in adjacent States is then brought into Punjab to claim MSP and sold under the MSP policy".

"A serious look is required. Thus, whether this kind of paddy should at all be grown and certainly we believe not in Punjab because the problem is persistent with the particular paddy which is grown and the time period in which it is grown," the order said.