Moga District Administration Issues Show Cause Notices to Officials Over Farm Fires

The Moga district administration in Punjab on Sunday issued show cause notices to several officials including two sub-divisional magistrates and two station house officers over farm fire incidents. 

Deputy Commissioner Vishesh Sarangal in a statement said 87 fire incidents have been reported in Moga so far. 

SDM (Moga) Sarangpreet Singh Aujla and SDM (Baghapurana) Beant Singh Sidhu were served the show cause notices. 

Notices have also been issued to Block Development and Panchayat officer (Nihal Singh Wala) Rupinder Kaur, SHO (Baghapurana) Jaswarinder Singh, SHO (Dharamkot) Jatinder Singh, Cluster Officers Sukhwinder Singh, Manmohan Singh, Nodal Officers (Village Bhinder Kalan) Prabhdeep Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Sanjeevan Kumar, Pargatjeet Singh, Balwinder Singh, Davinder Singh, and Jagsir Singh. 

The District Commissioner said FIRs have been registered against 61 individuals, and red entries have been made in their land records. 

In addition, erring farmers have been fined Rs 1,72,500. 

The DC said intensive efforts are being made to prevent stubble burning after paddy harvest in line with the directions of the National Green Tribunal and Punjab Pollution Control Board. 

Teams are constantly monitoring villages, he said, adding, he along with Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Gandhi are visiting fields themselves. 

The DC said 146 nodal officers under the supervision of 23 cluster officers have been deployed to prevent fire incidents and raise awareness among farmers. 

Meanwhile, Punjab Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said his department sanctioned 21,958 crop residue management machines. 

The farmers have already procured 14,587 machines so far this year, bringing the number of CRM machines to 1.45 lakh in the state since 2018.