category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU chandigarh A groUP of farmers allegedly forced a government official, who was part of a team to prevent farm fires, to set a heap of paddy stubble on fire in Punjab s Bathinda district - an incident which drew condemnation from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A purported video of the entire incident also surfaced on social media. CM Mann said an FIR will be lodged in the matter. Bathinda Deputy Commissioner Showkat Ahmad Parray on Saturday said he has written to the senior superintendent of police to register an FIR against the farmers for preventing the official from discharging his duty. The incident took place in Mehma Sarja village on Friday when a team led by a special supervisor went there to check stubble burning incidents. The DC said the official was surrounded by a group of 50-60 farmers with allegiance to a farmers body, took him to a nearby field and forced him to put a heap of stubble on fire. In the video, farmers could be heard saying that those who came to stop stubble burning were made to set the crop residue on fire. The video also shows that the official s hand was held by two farmers, as they force him to set the stubble on fire with a matchstick. The video was made by one of the farmers. When he (official) was mobbed, what option he could have. He had no choice, DC Parray said. The DC said that an FIR will be lodged in the matter and those who were behind the incident will be put behind the bars. I am also visiting the village myself. We will not let it go way. Lawlessness is not something that we will tolerate, said the DC. The DC said he has already written to the Bathinda SSP, and added that the FIR will be lodged on Saturday. Later in a statement, CM Mann condemned the incident as an inhuman crime against people of the state. He said the state government cannot be a mute spectator to this heinous incident and allow the anarchy to prevail. The government official had gone to fields to disseminate the message of not burning the paddy straw but the mobsters forced him to light the straw with matchstick which is intolerable, said Mann. He said these people are ruining the lives of their own children by this dastardly act as the smoke from these fields will make the kids suffocate. Mann, while quoting Gurbani , said the verse Pawan Guru, Paani Pitaah, Mata Dharat Mahat explains how our great Gurus equated air (pawan) with teacher, water (paani) with father and land (dharat) with mother.Unfortunately, he said this incident has reflected that the words of the great Gurus are not honoured in the state. Mann said he had asked the police to identify the mobsters involved in this act and book them for this misdeed . This type of chaos and sin will not be tolerated at any cost and stern action will be taken as per the law of the land, he said. Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered as one of the major reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November. As the window for wheat -- a key Rabi crop -- is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop. Punjab has reported a total of 12,813 stubble-burning incidents till Friday, according to Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data. The blame game between the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP on the pollution crisis intensified on Saturday even as Delhi remained gripped by the crisis of hazardous air quality. The AAP blamed the BJP-governed Haryana for the crisis faced by people in the national capital, while BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it was high time to stop the blame game and initiate measures to protect people. He alleged that the callous and frivolous attitude of the Kejriwal government was responsible for the annual affair of toxic air quality in the city during winters. Targeting the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said it has done nothing for stubble management. If the Khattar government wishes, we can send our experts from Punjab who can guide them on where machines are needed for stubble disposal. She said that out of the 52 most polluted districts in the country, 20 are in Haryana. Even Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath complained that his eyes were itching when he arrived in Ghaziabad, Kakkar said and claimed the polluted air is coming from Haryana. The Delhi government believes in taking problems head-on, which is why monitoring is done at 40 locations, but the Haryana government is not doing the same, she said. (editor dailyworld.in)