The fact came to light in a review meeting held by Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra.
Mishra pinpointed the 18 districts — Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Shamli, Aligarh, Mathura, Sambhal, Meerut Bulandshahr, Bareilly, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Fatehpur, Barabanki, Kanpur, Hardoi and Rampur — for failing to take adequate measures to check stubble burning post-paddy harvesting season.
While these districts have come on the radar of the state government, the Chief Secretary has asked all district authorities to take steps to check the problem with immediate effect.
This includes daily monitoring and taking legal action against those flouting the norms.
The situation has surfaced despite the strict directives of the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal to check stubble (NGT) year after year.
The Uttar Pradesh government has also issued four orders on the issue since 2019, the recent one on October 10 this year.
The state reportedly recorded 80 instances of crop burning till October 6 against 52 recorded last year, according to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) that tracks such fires via satellite.
In 2020, 101 incidents of stubble burning were recorded.
As per an estimate, Uttar Pradesh is the highest producer of agricultural residues (40 MT) followed by Maharashtra (31MT) and Punjab (28 MT).
Last year, the state agriculture department had proposed feeding stubble to stray cattle as a key measure to dispose of the agricultural residue.
The Yogi government had also proposed funding carriage of stubble to shelter homes meant for stray cattle.
