CII
launches Cleaner Air, Better Life initiative on zero crop residue burning
National Tele24 News
Vinay Kumar
Ludhiana
Pertaining to the
current challenge of crop residue burning, leading to air pollution and
degradation of soil quality, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has
initiated on-ground project interventions to support farmers in adopting
suitable solutions to the problem of crop residue burning in Patiala and
Ludhiana districts, covering about 15000 acres of land to go stubble burning
free. To mark the beginning of its
initiative in Ludhiana, CII organized a project launch event on 16 October 2018
in Boparai Khurd village in Ludhiana bringing together farmer groups, key
Government officials, industry members and institutional partners. CII
Foundation is implementing the project in five villages, namely Boparai Khurd,
Sivian, Rajgarh, Dhurkot and Shajapur; with support from ReNew Power and
Cummins. CII Foundation, with field support from GBDSGNS
Foundation, is building awareness among farmers and providing financial
support to farmer groups for procurement and use of required farm
machines.
Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon,
Vice Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) congratulated CII for
undertaking this initiative and promised support. He added that “PAU through
their technical assistance will be training farmers to operate the machines and
adopt relevant technologies.”
Addressing the farmers at the launch event,
Dr Himanshu Gupta, SDM, Raikot said that “The Government may consider rewarding
the village panchayats who actively participate in the initiative and enable
farms to go crop residue burning free.” Dr Jaskaran Singh Mahal, Director,
Extension at PAU mentioned the key role played by CII and NITI Aayog platform:
Cleaner air better life initiative for highlighting the available technological
solutions to policy makers, which formed the basis for subsidy scheme on tools
which are required by farmers.CII has been engaging with various stakeholders
for research, field programme implementation and approaches to find optimal
solutions for air pollution in North India, especially caused due to farm residue
burning in Punjab. Last year, CII, in partnership with NITI Aayog, anchored a
policy research initiative “Cleaner Air Better Life” with the
objective of deriving in-depth understanding of the issue.
Ms Seema
Arora, Deputy Director General, CII and CEO, CII Foundation said, “CII has been
extensively working with various stakeholders to do an in-depth research on the
complex problem of air pollution; implementing pilot projects by adopting
relevant technology and delivery models; and proposing enabling policy to scale
up the optimal solution across India.”
Dr Harminder Singh Sindhu, President, GBDSGNS
encouraged farmers to proactively adopt sustainable agricultural practices,
rather than being dependent on Government subsidies only.
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