Chandigarh, April 21 -- The Punjab government has formulated an action plan worth Rs.500 crore to provide farmers with latest crop residue management (CRM) machinery on subsidised prices and for implementing strategies to manage the paddy straw efficiently, agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said on Sunday, and added that the initiative is aimed at bringing farm fire count down to zero.

Khudian said the agriculture and farmers welfare department has invited online applications from state farmers for subsidies on CRM machines. Applications can be through portal 'agrimachinerypb.com' from April 22 to May 12.

To be sure, paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution in th...