Chandigarh, Oct 28 (IANS): The police have registered cases against 192 farmers in Haryana for burning crop residue, an official said on Monday.

The police have also issued 334 challans and imposed fines of Rs 8.45 lakh on farmers.

In addition, 418 red entries were made in farmers' field records.

A government spokesperson said the government has categorised villages into red, yellow, and green zones based on the incidents of paddy stubble burning in the previous year.

Panchayats in the red and yellow zones will receive incentives from the government to reduce stubble-burning incidents. Red zone panchayats will be awarded an incentive of Rs 1 lakh, while yellow zone panchayats will receive Rs 50,000 for achieving zero-burning targets.

He said with the directive of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, a state-specific scheme has been implemented. This initiative provides financial assistance to farmers for crop residue management while setting zero-burning targets for panchayats to curb stubble-burning incidents.

As a result, there have been a total of 713 recorded incidents of stubble burning by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) this year, marking a 29 per cent reduction compared to last year.

The spokesperson said the government is raising awareness among farmers at the village level about the importance of not burning stubble. A total of 83,070 farmers have registered to manage 7.11 lakh acres of paddy area as of October 28.

The spokesperson said the government is providing subsidised crop management equipment to farmers for both in-situ and ex-situ management. From 2018-19 to 2024-25, a total of 100,882 crop residue management machines have been made available to farmers at a subsidy of 50 to 80 per cent. This year, farmers have purchased 9,844 machines.

The farmers are being given an incentive of Rs 1,000 per acre for managing paddy crop residues. In addition, an incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre is provided for adopting alternative crops in paddy areas under the Mera Pani-Meri Virasat Yojana.

This year, 33,712 farmers have registered for crop diversification, opting for other crops instead of paddy on 66,181 acres. From 2020-21 to 2023-24, incentives worth Rs 223 crore have been disbursed to farmers.

The government is offering an incentive of Rs 4,000 per acre for adopting direct seeding of rice (DSR) technology. Furthermore, ‘gaushalas’ are also being given an incentive of a maximum Rs 15,000 as transportation charges of bales at the rate of Rs 500 per acre.

Various industries are being established near villages to utilise stubble, allowing farmers to generate additional income instead of resorting to burning it.