The national capital of India is again in news due to pollution. Walking in the streets of Delhi can be more lethal than smoking 50 cigarettes a day. The major reason told to us for this pollution is the stubble burning by the farmers of Punjab and Haryana. This shows the weakness of India’s domestic laws, where a state government cannot do much about the pollution coming from another state.
However, the issue of stubble burning is not new, this occurs every year. Despite various attempts of governments, such as extreme one to arrest the farmers, there is no escape from the issue. Perhaps, because governments’ all the attempts were loose, keeping in mind that farmers are also helpless. Here both, state and the citizens, are helpless. Why not to test the third important pillar— markets.
Policy making is more like testing when a policy is being introduced no one could be sure that it will absolutely be beneficial. In the countries like India this is easily seen. The odd-even analogy of Delhi Government, where all the citizens were told to drive the cars with “odd number” on the odd dates, and “even number” on even dates. The rationale behind the odd-even was that it could reduce the pollution in Delhi by 50 percent, although the study by The University of Chicago reveled that it indeed reduced pollution but only by the 15 percent last year.
The irony here is that the major polluters in Delhi are the farmers of nearby states, not the vehicles, but the government cannot do much in resolving this crisis through any legislation or policy. Hence, they are trying to put the entire focus on the pollution generating from vehicles.
Such schemes can be a temporary relief, if we look at the mentioned study, it says that odd-even just reduced very little pollution. The policy framework was bit effective, but that is not the policy what is only required. India need a market oriented approach to solve this issue of pollution, for instance it should make strong legislation which penalize the polluter and give subsidy to the victim. In case of Delhi, the farmers of Punjab and Haryana are the polluters.
How should they penalize? Perhaps not through arresting them! But fining the panchayats (the village governments) for neglecting and letting farmers burn the stubble. The subsidies should also be given to them for purchasing the machinery for cutting the stubble.
It is not only harmful for the residents, but for farmers itself. So here the farmers are also the victims. In India average income of farmers is quite low, where they cannot afford purchasing these heavy machinery for this purpose. The administration must consider an approach of providing the machines on rent. This will help the farmers and will reduce the pollution also. However, it will be difficult. The second option, and the most effective one, if the government purchase the stubble from the farmers.
These stubble can be good for making bags and other things.
Biased Economist 