A group of farmers allegedly forced a government official, who was a part of a team visiting to stop the farm fires, to burn the stubble lying in the field in Punjab’s Bathinda, an official said on Sunday. The incident came to light after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann posted the video of the incident on X. He condemned the occurrence and said that an FIR has been registered in the matter. The incident took place under the Nahian Wala police station limits in Mehma Sarja village.
“(A team of officials) had gone to Mehma Sarja village to convince the farmers not to burn the stubble. During this, the farmers there called their union and forced our civil administration’s officer, Harpreet Singh, to burn that stubble (lying on the field),” SSP Bathinda Gulneet Singh Khurana said.
Seven people named in FIR
The SSP said that an FIR has been registered in which a total of seven people have been named.
“We have registered an FIR in this matter. A total of 7 persons have been named in the FIR and action is being taken against other persons. The farm was owned by Ram Singh. Besides, the other members of the union present at the spot are being identified and raids are being conducted in the matter,” he added.
Stubble burning is widely prevalent in parts of the agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana.
It is a process of setting on fire the straw stubble left after the harvesting of grains like paddy, wheat, etc. The process of burning farm residue is one of the major causes of air pollution in parts of north India, deteriorating the air quality around this time of the year. Combined with vehicular emissions, it adversely affects the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital.
(With ANI inputs)