Chennai firm to tackle stubble burning menace in Punjab

A farmer burns stubble at his paddy field on the outskirts of Amritsar. PTI File Photo

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday informed the Vidhan Sabha that his government was working on an action plan to curb the menace of stubble burning and free the state of the smog.

Singh said that the state government had recently signed a MoU with a Chennai-based company to address the problem and work on alternative ways of disposing of the crop residue.

The MoU allows NEWAY to set up 400 processing plants for converting paddy straw into bio-energy in the state, he said.

Singh said the state generated 20 million tonnes of paddy straw in a season, of which 19 million tonnes would be used by NEWAY, thus curbing the environmental hazard triggered by the burning of stubble.