Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Friday, said the state government will leave no stone unturned in making the state free from paddy straw burning by the coming year.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Mann, accompanied by his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, said the state government is working on a multi-pronged strategy and has already roped in agriculture experts and the farmers unions to work out a viable solution for this problem.

The chief minister said his state government has already given 1.20 lakh machines for the in-situ management of the paddy straw.

Calling it a problem of the entire north India, he said the Union government must intervene in the matter and strive for joint resolution by all aggrieved states.

The CM said while the state government is encouraging the farmers to adopt crop diversification, the Union government should give them remunerative minimum support price (MSP) for these crops. This will help in encouraging the farmers to adopt alternate crops to solve this problem.

He said the farmers get 10-12 days’ time between harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat. Due to lack of a viable alternative the farmers rely on a matchstick to solve the problem. If the Centre provides a solution for it, the farmers will never burn the paddy straw.

The CM further said that the state government has already encouraged farmers after thousands of panchayats had passed resolutions for not burning paddy straw.

“The country feels proud that in any year bumper crops have been produced. We however forget that this has also enhanced the production of paddy straw too,” he added.

The CM said in Punjab farmers cultivate paddy on 75 lakh hectares of land out of which the paddy straw is burnt over only on 40 lakh hectares of land. He said that the remaining farmers never indulge in such practice, which pollutes the environment.

Mann said the state government has set up a make plant of bio energy production at Sangrur adding that more such plants will be set across the state.

The CM, however, said the Centre must immediately give nod to such projects pending with them. He said that the Punjabi farmer is fully sensitised towards not burning paddy straw as he knows that it will adversely hit his family too. Mann said since it is a problem concerning the entire north India, the Union government must have convened a meeting to find a solution to this issue.