burning wheat stumps and press release from haryana

A press release from the public relations office Haryana caught my eye.
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Chandigarh, March 28 - The Deputy Commissioner, Bhiwani has imposed the ban to destroy the remainings of wheat through fire after the harvesting of crops.
The Deputy Commissioner had issued these orders. It had been come into the notice that after the harvesting of crops of wheat some farmers are destroying the remainings of wheat through fire.

By doing so, the farmers were not only helping in degrading the environment, but it was hazardous for the health also. Besides loss of property, such decision creates the scarcity of grass for animals. So, the decision had been taken not to destroy these remaining through fire and ban had been imposed on it.

These orders had been promulgated with immediate effect in the district and would remain effective upto May 15. Those would defy the orders, a case would be registered against them under section of IPC 188 and Environment Control Act, 1981.
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This press release i thought it was interesting. Interesting due to the following reasons

* Section 188 IPC is Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant
Whoever, knowing that, by an order promulgated by a public servant lawfully empowered to promulgate such order, he is directed to abstain from a certain act, or to take certain order with certain property in his possession or under his management, disobeys such direction,Shall, if such disobedience causes to tender to cause obstruction, annoyance or injury, or risk of obstruction, annoyance of injury, to any persons lawfully employed, be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month or with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees, or with both;And if such disobedience causes or trends to cause danger to human life, health or safety, or causes or tends to cause a riot or affray, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.Explanation-It is not necessary that the offender should intend to produce harm, or contemplate his disobedience as likely to produce harm. It is sufficient that he knows of the order which he disobeys, and that his disobedience produces, or is likely to produce, harm.

* I could not find anything on Environment Control Act, 1981. However there is an Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 : An Act to provide for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution, for the establishment, with a view to carrying out the aforesaid purposes, of Boards, for conferring on and assigning to such Boards powers and functions relating thereto and for matters connected therewith.


Some background information

After the wheat has been harvested using a combined harvester what is left are the stumps. This is because the harvester cuts the wheat plant a certain distance above the ground.

One of the ways for removing the stumps is to bring in manual labour, an expensive proposition. The cheapest way for the Haryana farmer is thus to burn the stumps. What farmers across haryana do is to set their fields on fire so that the fire sweeps the fields burning the stumps. The farmers then till the soil.

Burning the stubble allows farmers to quickly plant their next crop and is a good tool for eliminating insects and disease from their fields, which can lead to less herbicide and pesticide use.

Incidentally burning is also practiced by farmers in the USA.

So what does the above press release imply

It has to proved that the farmer burnt the stumps in the field. It is a well-known fact that over 60% of rural Haryana defecates in the fields. It is also a well-known fact that majority of rural men and high number of rural women smoke bidis. So how do you prove that the fire was not due to somebody who has thrown a bidi.

Even if it is proved somebody purposefully burnt the stumps what does he do pay a fine upto rs 200. Nobody, i repeat nobody can be sent to jail as it would require some major political and administrative guts to do that and i don’t believe it is there in Haryana at least.

Yes this imposing of a ban will certainly get some people in the pollution control and agricultural department some extra bucks in their pockets as it would be a good way to harass medium holding farmers.(no big farmer can be touched)

So is it such a lame duck ban. Actually yes, it is more like a media exercise. It is like peeing in your pants. You get a warm feeling and it doesn’t effect anything.

Burning of the fields is an extremely wrong practice which have been adopted by farmers of haryana. A better way is to continuously educate them.

Agricultural burning impacts both local and regional air quality and has been linked to increased asthma and pulmonary infections.

Johad in village sukhrali, Gurgaon

a video on youtube about the sukhrali johad. it is a 2-4 acre johad right on NH-8. an excellent place to do rainwater harvesting. all the rain water from the highway can be harvested in this johad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-bqdn8nXA

History in Tauru block of Mewat District

These monuments i think are from the lodhi and tuglaq periods. Some conservation efforts are on but from the upkeep as well as cow dung cakes inside the monuments i got a feeling the locals do not own this history. in fact there is a school running right infront of these monuments and a PHC or primary health center nearby.

No wonder they say " those who forget history are condemned to repeat it". we claim we have a long and rich history but we neither own nor take care of this history.

Here is the text of a press release from public relations office of haryana government. Ity reads " Chandigarh, Sept 5 - The Haryana Compulsory Registration of MarriagesAct, 2008 came into effect in the State from July 16, 2008 and theevery marriage solemnized in the State after this date irrespective ofcaste, religion or creed will have to be got registered compulsorily.The parties to a marriage shall prepare and sign a memorandum onprescribed form and deliver or send it by registered post induplicate to the Registrar of the Area concerned in which the marriagewas solemnized or the ordinary place of residence of the bride/herparents or the bridegroom/his parents within a period of 90 days fromthe date of marriage.The memorandum should be accompanied prescribed fee in the form ofcourt fee stamps and attested by the person prescribed for thispurpose. The Registrar concerned on being satisfied that there is noobjection to register the marriage, shall register the same within theprescribed period. If in the opinion of the Registrar, the marriage isnot fit for registration, he shall pass an order of refusal in writtenafter recording the reasons and send the duplicate copy thereof to theDistrict Registrar.The persons who were married prior to the date of commencement ofthis Act, may also get their marriage registered, if they areresidents of the State at the time of registration of the marriage,subject to the terms and conditions as mentioned in sub-sections (2),(3) and (4). The persons, who have married outside the State but areresidents of the State, may also get their marriage registered in theState as per provisions of sub-section (1), subject to the terms andconditions as mentioned in the sub-sections (2), (3) and (4). However,the marriage already registered outside the State will not beregistered again in the State.Any person aggrieved by the order of the Registrar refusing toregister the marriage to under sub-section (4) of section 7 may,within a period of 90 days from the date of receipt of such order,appeal to the District Registrar, who after giving an hearingopportunity to the party concerned, may pass an order confirming theorder of the Registrar or after recording the reasons in writing,direct the Registrar concerned to register the marriage or may passsuch orders as he may deem fit.Any person aggrieved by the order of the District Registrar refusingto register the marriage under section 8, may within a period of 90days from the date of receipt of such order, appeal to the ChiefRegistrar, who after giving an hearing opportunity to the partyconcerned, may pass an order confirming the order of the DistrictRegistrar or Registrar concerned or after recording the reasons inwriting, direct the District Registrar or Registrar concerned, as thecase may be to register the marriage or may pass such orders as he maydeem fit.The Registrar shall maintain a register of marriages solemnized inthe State. On receipt of the memorandum of marriage under section 7,the Registrar shall make a record of the same in the register.On registration of the marriage, the Registrar shall issue acertificate of marriage to the parties.The registration of marriages will mitigate the problem of Indianwomen trapped in fraudulent Overseas marriages. It will also mitigatethe problems of dowry, concealment of earlier existing marriages,marriages of convenience, etc. "

So in district gurgaon if i wish to marry and get it registered where do i go? I suppose the office of the district registrar. No who is the registrar? one way to do so is to check the official website of haryana http://haryana.gov.in/ . i am sure with the amount of money haryana spends in IT and their desire to make it an IT enabled state(remember gurgaon is the largest exporter of software in the country) . There is no information in the latest releases even though the law came into forec on July 16 2008 and a press release was released on Sept 5, 2008. I guess this should say it all. however i decided persist and i went into the official site of gurgaon district http://gurgaon.nic.in/ . The header says " where dreams are talking shape" but i could not find whom to get my marriage registered. So i guess the next best thing is to go to the mini secretariat and grope my way about . OR i may say well who care's . So much for laws and following it.