Who will verify if farmers have indulged in stubble burning, asks SC

Who would verify whether a farmer has indulged in stubble burning, the Supreme Court asked on Tuesday after a suggestion was put forth before it that full minimum support price (MSP) should be paid only after ascertaining that farmer has not burnt crop residue which is a key contributor in rising pollution in Delhi-NCR.

The Centre also opposed the suggestion and said that “tinkering” with MSP might not be in the interest of farmers.

"Who is going to supervise and verify if a farmer has indulged in stubble burning," a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, asked.

The bench agreed to the submission of a lawyer appearing in the matter that withholding of MSP for such verification would create more problem and might increase corruption.

The apex court was hearing the pollution matter in which it is dealing with several aspects, including that of stubble burning which is a source of pollution in the Delhi-national capital region (NCR) and neighbouring areas.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the suggestion given by senior advocate Shyam Divan, who was appearing for one of the intervenors in the matter, and sought time to file an “elaborate reply” on the issue.

“Our suggestion is that, instead of paying the MSP in one go to farmers. This should be paid after the verification that such and such farmers have not burnt the stubble,” Divan told the bench, adding that some amount of MSP could be withheld and it be released later after the verification.

He said it was also suggested that farmers, who have not indulged in stubble burning, may be given Rs 100 over and above the MSP.

The bench said it would issue notice on the application argued by Divan.

Divan said that the solicitor general and senior lawyer Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the pollution matter, should consider the suggestion and respond to them.

“We will file our reply,” Mehta said.

At the outset, Singh told the bench that governments of Haryana and Punjab had earlier assured that there would be no stubble burning this year.

One of the lawyers appearing in the matter claimed that nothing has been done in last two years to stop stubble burning in these two states despite the assurances given to the apex court.

“Mr Tushar Mehta, does anybody know that there is an authority under the law to deal with this stubble burning aspect,” the bench asked.

“We will ask the SG (solicitor general) to tell us by next week as to whether there is an authority or officer under the Environment protection act. He will be dealing with this issue,” the bench said.

During the arguments, Divan referred to action plan with regard to forest fire and said this technology could be used for cases of stubble burning as well.

He said as per the forest fire technology, the moment forest fire is detected, an SMS alert is sent and efforts are started to douse it.

Divan said this technology could be used to prevent instances of stubble burning.

The bench, which posted the pollution matter for further hearing next week, asked the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab to be present before the court on the next date of hearing.

Earlier, the apex court had asked governments of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan about the arrangements made by them for preventing stubble burning.

It had also asked the states concerned to apprise it about the instances of stubble burning in previous year, its locations and also how many farmers were responsible so that "special arrangements" could be made in advance for those areas.

In November last year, the apex court had expressed serious displeasure over the failure of state machinery in preventing stubble burning and said that citizens of Delhi-national capital region (NCR) were "suffocat