Cases were lodged against three farmers in Shamli and 11 farmers in Singhavli Aheer police station of Baghpat on Tuesday for burning stubble in their fields which is a violation of the High Court orders. To this, the Bhartiya Kisan Union have threatened to stage a protest calling it “exploitation of the farmers”.

SP of Bagpat Pratap Gopendra Yadav confirmed that all 11 cases have been registered at Singhavli Aheer police station on charges of defying the High Court`s order according to which stubble burning is banned in order to check air pollution.

In fact, lekhapal of Bagpat tehsil Sachin Bharti had registered cases against 11 farmers of the district on Tuesday morning for burning stubble in their fields. Cases were also lodged against three farmers in Shamli district on the charges of burning stubble in the fields following which the angry farmers protested against the district administration.

Meanwhile, leaders and activists of Bhartiya Kisan Union also came out in their support and staged a protest outside the office of Regional Pollution Control in Muzzaffarnagar. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, who led the protest, called this action against the farmers as total injustice and exploitation and threatened to stuff the jails with stubble if this is not stopped.

Tikait claimed that the action has been taken up on the basis of satellite images. Sometimes weeds and grasses are burnt in the fields and satellite catches those images because of the smoke. Here, the farmers are not following the practise of burning stubble which is used as a fodder for animals, he said adding that farmers here buy good quality stubble from neighbouring Haryana which they use as fodder for animals. So how could they contribute to air pollution, he asked.

Tikait has threatened to fill the jail with stubble and burn it there if the officials do not stop actions against the farmers.

The Paddy crop in western UP is harvested manually and the leftover parali (stubble) which is of good quality is used as a fodder for animals unlike Punjab and Haryana where Paddy is cut with machines and hence not worthy to use using as fodder hence it is burnt causing air pollution.