Farmers of Punjab and Haryana continue to burn stubble despite a ban by the Supreme Court on the practice.

This season recorded the highest stubble burning incidents in the neighbouring states of Delhi.

A review of air pollution in north India by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Tuesday found that crop stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana still continues.

The states have been asked to take violators to task by imposing penalties.

During the daily review, “it was observed that the cases of crop stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana still continues and that there is a need for more focussed action”, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The states have now been directed that more monitoring teams should be deployed on the field to ensure that the “violators are taken to task by imposing suitable penalties”, it said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting to discuss the pollution situation in northern India.

“PM Narendra Modi chaired a meeting in which the situation arising due to pollution in various parts of northern India was discussed,” the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday registered a fresh case in connection with the air pollution in Delhi-NCR. It will conduct hearings in the matter on Wednesday.

The suo motu case titled “alarming rise in air pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas” will come up for hearing along with other matters on pollution.

Meanwhile, reports have stated that the Punjab government has initiated action against almost 3000 farmers for burning stubble. Of the complaints received against 20,729 cases of stubble burning, the government has initiated action against 2,923 farmers, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said.

As the air quality index (AQI) crossed the emergency levels in the national capital earlier this week, the Supreme Court lashed out at the Centre and Delhi, Punjab and Haryana governments for doing nothing to control air pollution.

The apex court also questioned the capability of the Odd-Even road rationing scheme in combating air pollution.