Punjab’s stubble stalemate continues

EACH season in Punjab, the story repeats itself — fields ready for the next crop, stubble lying unlifted and tempers flaring. Farmers in Faridkot and beyond have warned they will be “forced” to burn paddy residue if immediate steps are not taken to clear it. Their anger is not unfounded. Delayed baling, uncollected straw and half-implemented schemes continue to choke the system, despite repeated promises and allocations for stubble management. The Punjab Government had assured mechanised baling, subsidised straw management and timely intervention. Yet farmers report broken balers, erratic diesel supplies and delayed payments under multiple schemes. With the narrow window before wheat sowing, they are trapped between time constraints and administrative apathy. For smallholders, burning becomes not a choice but the only escape from mounting costs and official neglect.

The Centre, too, cannot wash its hands of responsibility. Funds under crop residue management are released late, guidelines remain impractical and coordination with the state is perfunctory. Political blame games have already begun, with Delhi accusing Punjab of deliberately creating smog in the capital. This claim is both absurd and self-defeating. Instead of finger-pointing, genuine coordination between Punjab, Haryana and Delhi is essential.

What Punjab urgently needs is not another awareness drive but a working model: farmer cooperatives for biomass collection, decentralised pellet and biofuel units at the village level and real-time monitoring of stubble lifting. The technology exists; what’s missing is urgency, accountability and political will. Every year, policymakers promise to end stubble burning. Every year, the fields burn anyway. Until both Central and state governments treat farmers as partners instead of culprits and act before the smoke rises, the “war on pollution” will remain a headline, not a solution.

Editorials