JAIPUR: Rajasthan government has been pulled up by the National Green Tribunal(NGT) after failing to submit action plans to prevent air pollution emanating from crop stubble burning after the harvesting season of Kharif crop.
The tribunal on August 4 gave State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), final opportunity requiring them, at least, to file action plans with complete accountability and elements of performance, within one week. Next hearing is scheduled on August 11.
Ultimatum came along with a warning that if SPCB failed to comply with the directions, NGT will be compelled to attach the treasury account of the state. That is state will have to pay up for the pollution caused from its own coffers.
Apart from Rajasthan three other states - Haryana, UP and Punjab too have failed in giving the details to NGT.
Earlier, the tribunal had also asked these states to take coercive and punitive action against persistent defaulters and asked them to withdraw the assistance provided to such farmers.
However, officials of SPCB expressed their surprise over the orders and claim that report has already been submitted to the tribunal. They claimed that Rajasthan is a part of a committee constituted by the ministry of environment and presented all facts and figures before them.
"We have already notified and banned any sort of crop burning activities in the state. The practice however is not much prevalent in Rajasthan barring few pockets of Kota and Sriganganagar" said a senior official of RSPCB.
For farmers, burning the remnants from the previous crop is an easy and cheap option while preparing the fields to plant wheat, rice, pulses and sugarcane.
It was observed that crop burning is a major contributor to Delhi's winter air-pollution. With parts of Rajasthan from Alwar and Bharatpur district falls under national capital region (NCR), Rajasthan too was asked to take preventive measures.
