New Delhi, Dec 11: The National Green Tribunal has directed state governments to take coercive and punitive action against persistent defaulters of crop residue burning and asked them to withdraw the assistance provided to those farmers.
In case of persistent defaulters of crop residue burning an appropriate coercive and punitive action could be taken by the state government concerned including launching of prosecution…,” a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar said.
The green panel said that the five north Indian states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi – which have issued notification prohibiting agriculture crop residue burning shall ensure that these notifications are enforced rigorously and proper action is taken against the defaulters
It directed that the National Policy of Management of Crop Residue, 2014 prepared by the union Ministry of Agriculture shall in conjunction with the action plan prepared by the states shall be implemented without any default and delay.
The tribunal said small land owners having less than two acres of land will have to pay Rs 2500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres will have to pay Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres will have to pay Rs 15,000 per incident of crop burning towards environment compensation.
The panel asked state governments to provide machinery free of cost to the farmers having less than two acres of land, to farmers having medium land owners at a cost of Rs 5,000 and for the large land holding farmers at Rs 15,000.
NGT’s judgement came on a plea by environmentalist Vikrant Tongad who sought a ban on burning of agricultural waste/ remnants in open fields
