Chandigarh, Nov 26 (PTI) The Punjab government has issued a notification to withdraw all cases where red entries were made in the land records of farmers who burnt paddy stubble.

Once a red entry is made in land records, a farmer may not be able to mortgage or sell the land.

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According to the notification which was issued on November 23, the red entries made in the land records are withdrawn.

A total of around 4,300 red entries were so far made in the land records which are now rolled back following the notification.

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The notification was issued after the farmer bodies were pressing the Aam Aadmi Party government not to take action against farmers for stubble burning.

At the time of paddy harvesting season, the state government had issued directions to make red entries in the land records of farmers who burn crop residue.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

As the window for Rabi crop wheat is very short after paddy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue. Punjab generates around 180 lakh tonne of paddy straw annually.

The state recorded 71,304 such fire incidents in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019, 50,590 in 2018, 45,384 in 2017 and 81,042 in 2016.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)