PATNA: The Rohtas district administration has lodged FIRs against six farmers in the last few days for burning stubble in their fields.
The first FIR was filed against Mantosh Kumar, a farmer from Ghordiha village under Kargahar police limits on Thursday after he burned stubble in his 23-hectare land. He was booked under relevant sections of IPC following a report from the block resource centre. Kargahar SHO Suresh Ram said that an FIR was lodged under section 435 of IPC and Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act,1986.
The second FIR was lodged against five farmers -- Parmeshwar Singh, Jyoti Kumar, Alok Kumar, Niranjan Patel and Nirmal Choudhary -- residents of Rampur and Kapasaia villages under the Kochas PS limits. They were reported by Agriculture Coordinator Shailesh Kumar, who said they went on to burn the stubble despite many rounds of awareness campaigns.
Agriculture department officials of Rohtas, known as the 'Rice Bowl of Bihar', are instructed by district magistrate Pankaj Dixit to take necessary initiatives to educate the farmers about the environmental hazards of stubble burning and how it turns the lands infertile.