DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab on Saturday witnessed 6,318 stubble burning incidents with Sangrur district continuing to record the highest number of farm fires. With the addition of Saturday's cases, the overall count of stubble burning incidents in the state since September 21 has reached 59,288, according to a data of the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre. More than 22,000 incidents of stubble burning have been witnessed since November 2 in the state, as per the data. The total count of 59,288 is already more than the cases reported in the corresponding periods of 2017, 2018 and 2019 when 37,777, 33,687 and 45,114 cases were witnessed, respectively. Of 6,318 residue burning incidents on Saturday, Sangrur contributed maximum 952 farm fire cases.Sangrur is the epicentre of the farmers' protest against the central farm laws. Bathinda, Moga, Muktsar and Barnala districts reported 831, 755, 540 and 519 cases, respectively. Mohali reported the lowest number of farm fire incidents at two, as per the data. Small farmers have been saying that it is economically unviable for them to buy farm machinery like happy seeders, rotavators, super straw management systems on combine harvesters to manage crop residue. Farmers are demanding either Rs 200 per quintal of bonus on paddy or Rs 6,000 per acre for stubble management.The Punjab government has been seeking from the Centre Rs 100 per quintal as compensation to enable farmers to manage paddy straw without burning it. Punjab alone generates 20 million tonnes of paddy stubble annually. Along with bad air, there's bad news for residents of Delhi-NCR, the Ministry of Earth Sciences informed that overall AQI in the region has deteriorated to 'severe' category on Saturday morning and there is "no quick recovery" in sight unless "a drastic reduction of stubble fire counts takes place." Delhi's Air Quality Index was 405, while that of Ghaziabad was 432; Greater Noida 418; Millennium City Gurugram 411, Noida 404 and Faridabad a 410. SAFAR has synergized stubble fire counts over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and neighbouring areas which increased and stood at 4,528 as on Friday -- the highest this season. "Despite moderate day time dispersion condition, air quality has declined, owing to sustained unusually high fire emissions. Surface winds have become calm today morning and pollutants are accumulating near the surface," said the ministry. (editor@dailyworld.in)