In an attempt to curb stubble burning, the Haryana government has stated that it will not buy crops from farmers who burn stubble and a ‘red entry’ will also be made in their farm records.The state’s Department of Agriculture has issued an order, dated October 17, stating that, ”An FIR will be registered against farmers who burn stubble.

A red entry will also be made in their farm records restricting them from selling their crops in mandis through the e-Kharid portal for the next two seasons.”

‘Red entries’ prevent affected individuals from selling or mortgaging their land, or obtaining farm loans. The order was issued days after Haryana told the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) that it had started filing “red entries” against farmers who were involved in stubble burning.

Earlier in the day, Nayab Singh Saini took charge as the Chief Minister of Haryana at the Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh. He later said the government was providing instruments at subsidy and the farmers were very aware. ”The farmers of Haryana are aware and I congratulate them because they were also praised by the Supreme Court. If a farmer burns stubble, then we will make him understand. We are also providing instruments at subsidy… Our farmers are very aware and they will not do anything like this…”

Dr Babu Lal, Deputy Director, Agriculture Department said, “If we talk about Kaithal district, we have formed teams for this, there are block level teams as well as village level teams. They go to villages and help the farmers. Apart from this, our mobile van is also running awareness campaigns and as far as the cases are concerned, till now 97 cases have come in the Kaithal district…”

Haryana Minister Mahipal Dhanda also requested the farmers to refrain from practising stubble burning. ”There are several schemes made by the government for stubble-burning, take benefits of that and choose them…because this will be a problem for everyone…When there is pollution (due to stubble burning), people having breathing issues will suffer from this…”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had pulled up the states of Haryana and Punjab over their failure to take action against farmers who were indulging in stubble-burning, which resulted in the deterioration of the air quality in the Delhi-National Capital Region. A thick layer of smog blanketed Delhi on Friday morning, prompting concerns as the Air Quality Index (AQI) plummeted to a hazardous 293, categorising the air quality as ‘Poor.’