However, farmers blamed the state and the Central governments for the same despite the fact that they put the stubble on fire.
“We had to burn stubble as neither we had an alternative nor the government released money to manage stubble without burning,” said Kultar Singh, a farmer from Phagguwala village.
Sangrur Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Baldev Singh said during the last two months, their teams had imposed a fine of Rs13 lakh on farmers for burning stubble.
“But this year, we saw fewer stubble fires than the last year. With our efforts, farmers used happy seeders to sow paddy in 70,000 hectares out of 2.88 lakh hectares in comparison to the last year figure of 25,000 hectares. I will discuss the issue with the DFO,” he added.