‘Not right to blame only farmers for air pollution’

Ludhiana: Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Tuesday said it is not right to target only farmers for air pollution, asserting that their problems need to be understood in order to resolve them.

Kataria also underscored the need for ensuring crop residue management (CRM) machinery to farmers in sufficient numbers in order to curb stubble burning incidents.

He was addressing a gathering at the international conference on ‘Transforming Agrifood Systems in the Face of Climate Changes and Energy Transitions’ at the Punjab Agricultural University here.

During his address, Kataria said that it was not that pollution is spread by Punjab only as he was referring to the stubble burning incidents.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi after harvesting of the paddy crop in October and November.

“Delhiwale may be saying that Punjab is sending pollution. But pollution is not coming only from Punjab. Today, we have so many vehicles which cause air pollution and we have to think about it also,” said Kataria.

“Only (because of) stubble burning, it is not right to blame farmers. It is their (farmers’) compulsion as they have to sow the next crop,” said the governor.

He pointed out that earlier, there was a gap between cultivation of two different crops.