Cent percent voting before 10 AM in naxal area booth in MP
A polling booth in naxal affected Balaghat Lok Sabha constituency of Madhya Pradesh registered 100 per cent voting before 10 AM on Friday in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls.
Blaming the State and Centre governments for burning of paddy stubble by farmers, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said unnecessary burden is being put on already indebted farmers with the attempt to make them manage crop residue scientifically.
In a Press statement, AAP Punjab leader Bhagwant Mann said both the State and Centre governments are running away from their responsibility on the issue of stubble burning.
He said farmers are required to incur a cost of about Rs Seven thousand per acre if they are to manage the stubble without burning. He said the economic condition of Punjab farmers is so precarious that they don’t have the resources to bear the cost of managing the crop residue without burning it.
Mann said farmers should be given compensation as incentive for not burning crop residue and the same can be paid to farmers along with the minimum support price for paddy.
The Lok Sabha member from Sangrur said the decision to ban stubble came during the previous Parkash Singh Badal regime which didn’t do anything as directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
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Mann said as the State and Centre governments have run away from their responsibility, they have no right to forcibly implement the NGT decision by penalising farmers for stubble burning.
He said if the government can’t pay compensation to farmers for not burning crop residue, it should make arrangements for lifting the same from fields so that farmers can sow their next crop without burning the same.
Mann said AAP also decided to convene a meeting on the issue of stubble burning and other issue concerning paddy procurement.
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