New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS): Amid rising level of air pollution in the national capital and surrounding areas, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has advised the district authorities to ensure verification of all reported farm fire incidents within 48 hours and take strict action against the violators.

Officials said that the Commission has been actively monitoring paddy residue burning events for a month now, from September 15 in the states of Punjab, Haryana and eight NCR districts of UP. The current year has so far seen a reduction of fire counts, from 3,431 to 1,695, as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The total farm fire incidents reported in Punjab are 1,444 as against 2,375 incidents in 2021, in Haryana, 244 as compared to 1,026 in the previous year, and in UP (NCR) five as against 30 fire incidents during the corresponding period of 2021. In Delhi, two fire incidents have been reported this year. No fire incident has been reported from the two NCR districts of Rajasthan.

During the current harvesting season, the first paddy residue burning incident was reported on September 15 in Punjab, on September 18 in Haryana, on September 30 in the NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and on October 5 in Delhi.

During the review meetings, the district authorities elaborated the steps taken regarding utilisation of available machinery, IEC activities especially in all hotspot villages, and interaction with the farmer communities and further informed that they are keeping strict vigil on the burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab, and UP.

It was noted that about 31,700 Custom Hiring Centers and cooperatives have been set up in Punjab, Haryana and UP (NCR) and more than 2 lakh CRM (Crop Residue Management) machinery is available for utilisation in Punjab, Haryana and NCR districts of UP.