Police awarded holidays for catching grass burners

RIGA- As an incentive to motivate police to find grass burners, authorities are offering an additional paid holiday. According to Interior Minister Linda Murniece, those police officers that catch one of the grass burners will be awarded an extra day of vacation.  

"We are unable to pay bonuses, but we have promised a paid day off in addition to the holiday allowance for each officer who catches a burner of old grass," the minister said.

The problem of grass burning creating pollution and starting forest fires is an annual problem when farmers start setting fire to their fields in order to freshen up the soil.

 

Every year the fire departments report out of control fires, causing more damage than good. The practice has been made illegal. Murniece has said that offenders will be charged with paying for the cost of extinguishing the fires.

As many fire fighters and police have undergone wage and staff cuts, departments can no longer afford to put out all the fires themselves.

 

"Grass burning is a kind of Latvian tradition, but this year the government will not be able to undertake an advertising campaign telling people not to burn our land, so we chose this more radical and swift move," Interior ministry spokesperson told the German Press Agency.