Faced with a high year-round baseline for air pollution, which pushes air quality over northwestern India into the hazardous zone during the October-November kharif stubble-burning season every year, the Centre’s most powerful pollution watchdog has decided to extend its vigil to the rabi season as well.

This means that activities in agricultural fields in Punjab and Haryana will, for the first time, come under direct on-the-ground scrutiny following the harvesting of the winter wheat crop in April-May.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has written to the chief secretaries of the two state governments directing them to extend ground-level monitoring and enforcement measures to eliminate farm fires during the rabi season, The Indian Express has learnt.

In its letter sent

See Full Page