Chandigarh, Sept. 20 -- Hoping to keep the stubble burning count low, the Punjab government has sanctioned 15,613 crop residue management (CRM) machines for farmers this season.

The government has already received 16,837 applications from across the state for 42,476 machines, agriculture and farmers welfare minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said on Friday, adding that the super-seeder machine has emerged as the most popular choice, with a total of 14,493 applications for it.

Delay due to floods

Agriculture department officials said 9,500 machines have been delivered while the rest will be delivered by the first week of October. They added that floods in August had caused a delay in handing over the machines.

The minister said an outlay o...