Gorakhpur, Nov 23 : The Gorakhpur administration has initiated punitive action against farmers, as incidents of stubble-burning continue unabated. Taking a tough stand against paddy growers for continuing to burn stubble despite understanding about its impact on air quality, deputy director, agriculture, Arvind Singh has stopped the Kisan Samman Nidhi of over 20 farmers. He imposed an environmental compensation fine on these farmers and asked 19 paddy growers to pay a collective fine of Rs 50,000. Arvind Singh also suspended three assistant agriculture development officers Amit Tripathi, Susheel Maurya and Suryanath of Sardar Nagar, Bhat Hat and Jungle Kauriya block, respectively, for their alleged failure to put an effective check on farm fires in their area. Singh confirmed that the agriculture department team had found piles of stubble lying and burning at 36 places during spot verification. /IANS