Under the new rules, which come into immediate effect, farmers with land less than two acres must pay a fine of Rs 5,000, while farmers with areas between two and five acres will be fined Rs 10,000.
The Centre has increased the penalty for farmers who burn crop stubble to combat the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and its peripheral districts to Rs 30,000.
Under the new rules that come into immediate effect, the fine for farmers holding less than two acres of land would be Rs 5,000. Farmers holding between two and five acres would be fined Rs 10,000, while those having more than five acres of land would be penalised Rs 30,000 for stubble burning.
The new regulations will be called Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (Imposition, Collection, and Utilisation of Environmental Compensation for Stubble Burning) Amendment Rules, 2024, it said in a notification.
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Under the new provisions, complaints on pollution will be forwarded to the pollution control boards and the CAQM for disposal after enquiry, with a proper procedure being stipulated for the same.
The increased fines follow harsh criticism from the Supreme Court, which earlier described such penalties as toothless in controlling the practice.
The previous fine was “toothless”, the court mentioned, mainly because there was considerable delay in appointing the adjudicating officers and framing appropriate regulatory mechanisms for enforcement.
The top court recently sued the Delhi government over the blanket ban on firecrackers. The court remarked that the ban was “hardly implemented” and ordered the Delhi top cop to file an affidavit stating measures to enforce the ban in the national capital.
The government’s move was to address the severe air pollution that annually plagues Delhi and its satellite towns. On Thursday, the air quality was recorded in the ‘severe’ category in many areas. While Anand Vihar, Bawana, Mundka, and Wazirpur recorded air quality as ‘severe’, other areas were found to be ‘very poor’.
