-The Indian Express Apart from sitting over the subsidy applications for agriculture machines, the state has not been able to add even a single Biomass power plant in the last three years. Ludhiana: Even while Punjab attempted to wash its hands of the air pollution that is plaguing Delhi, the state has not been able to set its own house in order either. Apart from sitting over the subsidy applications for agriculture machines,...

-Livemint.com Only 20% of Delhi’s air pollution can be attributed to stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana, environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said on Monday New Delhi: The spike in pollution levels in Delhi’s air is an annual winter ordeal, so is burning of paddy stubble by farmers in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana after the crop is harvested. But how much does burning of crop residues contribute to Delhi’s pollution peaks?...

-The Hindu The massive pollution cloud enveloping northern India every year is a good example of the disconnect between official policy and ground realities. It has been known for long that burning of agricultural waste in the northern States significantly contributes to the poor air quality in large parts of the Indo-Gangetic Basin, with local and cascading impacts felt from Punjab all the way to West Bengal. Harmful fine particulate matter...

-The Indian Express The state’s agriculture department has also sent a request to the Union Ministry of Agriculture to send them an immediate grant of Rs 1602 crore while the whole project is of Rs 11,000 crore. Ludhiana: WHEN almost 85 per cent of paddy in the area has been harvested already, the state Department of Agriculture is hurriedly conducting workshops on straw management across the state. The state’s agriculture department...

-Down to Earth Punjab produces about 19-20 million tonnes of paddy straw and about 85-90 per cent of this paddy straw is burnt in the field Burning of agricultural Biomass residue, or Crop Residue Burning (CRB) has been identified as a major health hazard. In addition to causing exposure to extremely high levels of Particulate Matter concentration to people in the immediate vicinity, it is also a major regional source of...