I am also a farmer, poor farmers cannot buy expensive machines: Judge of the Supreme

New delhi date. 13
"I am also a farmer," said Judge Suryakant during a hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Raman in the Supreme Court on the serious state of air pollution in Delhi. Chief Justice NV Raman also comes from a farming family and we know that the poor farmers of the country are not able to afford millions of rupees worth of expensive machinery for burning straw.
On the issue of rising pollution in Delhi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the incidence of straw burning in Punjab has increased in the last five-six days and its impact is being felt in Delhi. Machines for straw removal are available at 50% subsidy rate. However, Judge Suryakant asked Tushar Mehta whether farmers were able to buy these machines. I am a farmer and the Chief Justice also comes from a farming family. We know that the poor farmers of the country cannot afford these expensive machines.
"You are saying that there are two lakh straw burning machines available in the market," said Judge Suryakant Tushar Mehta while hearing a petition filed by environmentalist Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka in the Supreme Court seeking directions to provide straw removal machines to small and poor farmers free of cost. There are 3 types of machines, but you know poor farmers can't afford these machines. In Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, farmers do not have more than 3 acres of land after the Agriculture Act. We cannot expect them to buy expensive machines. He questioned why the central and state governments do not provide these machines to farmers. He further said that you can take straw from the fields and use it in paper mills and for various other purposes. In winter straw can be used as fodder for sheep in Rajasthan.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta clarified that he did not want to say that only farmers were responsible for air pollution in Delhi-NCR. In response to his remarks, Chief Justice NV Ram said, "Unfortunately, I am not a good speaker and I also started learning English in Std. I don't have good words in English for word expression. I studied law in English. In this context, Mehta also said that he also started learning English from 9th standard and graduated in Gujarati medium. I also studied law in English medium.