Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that there would be a special scheme for providing subsidised machinery required for management of crop residue in situ. Burning crop stubble in the month of November has, in recent years, has added to the pollution load of the northern states, causing an embarrassing and hazardous smog. For the last two years, the November smog has been thick, black and resulted in severe health complications in the region.
Jaitley did not elaborate exactly on how much subsidy would be given to a farmer and which are the approved technologies for in situ stubble management. It is, however, said that there is an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore to tackle stubble burning.
Farmers burn the stubble to clear the fields quickly. Small farms cannot afford tractor clearing while manual clearing is time and labour consuming. The window between kharif and rabi cultivation is small. “Our scientists are working to develop a viable process to handle stubble,'' said environment minister Harsh Vardhan.
A few days ago, the government had told the Supreme Court that it would give a 50 per cent subsidy to farmers to purchase machines like Happy Seeder and Rotavators, which help plough the crop residue back into the field and remove the need for burning.
Stubble burning—a big component in worsening the ambient air quality—however, is a seasonal phenomenon. It happens only in the post harvest days, and is restricted to a day-long stretch in a week . The worsening air quality is due to several other factors, too, which do not find a mention in the minister's budget speech. These include vehicular emission, unregulated construction, general dustiness of the northern plains and pollution from industrial units.
In that context, the budget has taken a rather myopic view of the smog problem. The issue requires consolidated management, and though the Union government itself has formed several bodies to look into and “manage'' the issue, at present, it has only caused mismanagement and confusion. And some rather questionable actions like spraying several thousand litres of water in the ITO region of Delhi to “wash out the air'' and suggestions that helicopters spray the city aerially. A smog which grounded entire planes, is not the condition in which helicopters can fly.
The Ujjwala scheme for increasing access to LPG cylinders for rural women has been stepped up from an earlier proposed five crore beneficiaries to now eight crore. Though firewood burning also causes poor air quality, since the Ujjwala scheme is spread across the country, its impact on the target states will not be that substantial to show a visible change. Of course, the health benefits to the housewife will be tremendous.
