The Punjab Police’s carrot and stick policy seems to have paid off as the state has seen a significant drop in farm fire cases this year as compared to previous years.

The state recorded 3,916 agricultural fires between September 15 and November 2, a sharp decrease from 11,262 last year and 21,480 in 2022.

Following Supreme Court directions to take strict action against farmers who burn stubble, the Punjab police have registered 1,608 FIRs this year (till November), which is almost double the last year’s figure of 850.

Amount of penalties ₹21.32 thousand lei were imposed in 797 cases, and legal action is taken against those found burning stubble.

Besides punishing those who set fire to fields, the Punjab police have also launched district-level awareness campaigns to educate people about the ill effects of agricultural fires. In total, they held 4,669 public awareness meetings and 3,733 meetings with farmers’ union leaders.

Figures compiled using the geographic locations of police officers revealed that Commissioners of Police and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) in collaboration with civil officers conducted 762 joint field tours, while Deputy Superintendents of Police along with Magistrates subdivision, completed 1,625 joint field tours.

Ever since the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directed SSPs to ensure effective implementation of district action plans, Special DGP Arpit Shukla, who is the nodal officer for stubble fires, has issued instructions for end-to-end reporting of every fire. incident and also to ensure appropriate coercive and preventive action such as registration of FIR/initiation of prosecution under Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and other relevant laws.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav also issued instructions to the SSP to ensure that the police authorities implement and implement various instructions and orders issued regarding the ban on burning of crop residues. The DGP himself organized daily teleconferences with the SSP and CP at 8.15 am to monitor the situation.

In areas where more than 25 land fires have been reported, the DC and SSP would jointly visit the site.

Special DGP Arpit Shukla said, “Our campaign to educate farmers about the ill effects of stubble burning and take legal action against those found to be burning their fields has paid off as agricultural fires have reduced significantly this year. As the issue is directly related to farmers, it has been a crucial task for the police force, whose main task is to enforce the law. However, in this case our field officers managed the situation effectively with the carrot and stick policy.”