Chandigarh (Balwinder Singh) — The Haryana government has rolled out a multi-tiered monitoring framework, setting up a specialized “Parali Suraksha Bal” across all districts and appointing 8,535 village-level nodal officers to prevent crop residue burning, State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shyam Singh Rana announced on Tuesday.
Speaking via video conference during a high-level inter-ministerial review meeting convened by the Union government, Rana outlined the state’s mitigation measures before Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, alongside agriculture ministers from neighbouring states. Central ministers commended Haryana’s structured ground-level intervention model.
Rana informed the panel that the state has mobilized 66,050 modern crop residue management machines and earmarked approximately 440 crore rupees in financial incentives covering 37 lakh acres of paddy cultivation, providing farmers with 1,200 rupees per acre for in-situ management. Additionally, the administration offers 4,500 rupees per acre for direct seeded rice (DSR) adoption to conserve groundwater, and between 8,000 to 10,000 rupees per acre for shifting toward alternative crops under crop diversification drives.
On surveillance, the minister stated that 20 drones are operational across vulnerable agricultural zones, with 30 more set to be deployed shortly, complemented by 79 real-time PM 2.5 air-quality sensors statewide. Attributing stringent enforcement to minimal farm-fire activity, he noted that only seven active fire location incidents have been recorded so far, with just one agricultural fire reported accidentally in Hansi district resulting in a 5,000-rupee fine. Rana also formally petitioned the Centre to bear 60 per cent of the 1,200-rupee per acre farmer incentive to ease state fiscal pressure and expand coverage.
