With an aim to sensitise farmers about ill-effects of burning stubble, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ludhiana Varinder Kumar Sharma on Tuesday, flagged-off an awareness van, which will cover maximum villages of the district to spread the awareness among farmers against paddy straw burning. The awareness van, equipped with an LED Tv was flagged off under the NABARD’s campaign against paddy straw burning.Varinder Kumar Sharma, while appreciating the efforts of NABARD to create awareness against stubble burning said that the administration has been making concerted efforts in these trying situations to defeat the coronavirus in the larger public interest and save precious lives. He once again appealed farmers to abstain from burning paddy stubble citing that besides polluting the environment, hazardous gasses might aggravate the COVID-19 situation and could cost lives.
Chairman Zila Parishad Yadwinder Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer Narinder Singh Benipal, District Development Manager (DDM) NABARD Sanjeev Kumar were also present during the flag-off.DDM Sanjeev Kumar said that NABARD, Punjab Regional Office, Chandigarh has also launched campaign against paddy straw burning (crop residue management) through slogan writing/wall painting under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) villages in Ludhiana District and is to be carried out throughout all the 22 districts of Punjab covering almost all paddy growing areas/villages. “The objective of the wall paintings is to create awareness and build the capacity of the farmers for crop residue management and improve their knowledge and understanding about climate change,” he said.He said that the van will operate continuously showing videos on management techniques in the different villages of the district and will raise awareness about the ill-effects of crop residue burning especially paddy straw.