Won’t register any FIR against farmers: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said that the state government will not register any FIR against farmers.

Addressing farmers during Kisan Mela at the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, Mann said that the paddy harvesting season was about to commence and once again Punjab farmers would be blamed and defamed for “spreading air pollution” by burning stubble — from New Delhi to Lahore.

“I told the Centre that first you boast that Punjab is the highest contributor of the paddy — 180 lakh metric tonne — to the central pool, but then you don’t see how much stubble this much paddy produces… I told the Centre that the only solution to stubble is cash incentives for farmers, maybe around Rs 1,500 per acre…,” he said, adding that “parcha (registering FIRs) or satellite surveillance won’t work”.

“Parcha purcha karan da dil ni karda yaar… aiyen kiven parcha kar daange… par lod hi na pave oss hisaab naal kar leyo… (We have no such intention to register FIRs against farmers, so please manage your stubble accordingly so that we do not reach such a situation,” Mann said, while urging farmers not to burn stubble in the coming paddy season.