M A I N   N E W S

Widespread damage to wheat crop
Khanna-Samrala zone worst hit
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 13
Farmers’ hope of harvesting a bumper wheat crop was dashed by incessant rain and hailstorms that hit certain parts of this region today. The worst-hit areas are Khanna, Samrala and Kumkalan belts near Ludhiana. Wheat, mustard and vegetable crops have been devastated in about 60 villages in the Khanna-Samrala zone.

Reports of hailstorm have also come from other parts, especially in the areas adjacent to the shivalik foothills in the state. It hit the region twice, first at 8 am and then again at 5 pm today. Areas near Khanna were hit by the hailstorm in the afternoon.

Though reports of moderate to heavy rainfall had come from almost all parts of the state during the past 24 hours, information regarding the hailstorm came from Khanna-Samrala and Mohali-Morinda and Rajpura belts, said a senior officer of the Agriculture Department.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked all deputy commissioners to immediately assess the damage caused to the standing crops in the state. Badal has urged the union government to send a special team from the Ministry of Agriculture to evaluate the loss. He has directed the state Agriculture Department to send its officers in the field to have first-hand information about the quantum of damage so that adequate compensation could be given. He reiterated that the farmers would be suitably compensated for the loss.

However, the government machinery was found wanting in extending help to affected farmers. “After the hailstorm hit the Khanna-Samrala belt, I tried hard to contact the deputy commissioner, Ludhiana, but he was not available on any of the contact number given by his staff,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the union. “No official came to even console the affected farmers,” he said.

Rajewal said hailstorm hit Jarg, Rauni, Beebipur, Baopur, Issru Khurad, Issru Kalan, Rajewal, Libra, Dahru, Daoadpur, Chakmafi and other nearby villages. “ I have seen 6-inch thick layer of hail at various places. Because of heavy rain in certain parts, wheat fields had got waterlogged.

Rajewal said, “It will be advisable to extend immediate financial help to farmers who have suffered loss because of the inclement weather. We have fixed a meeting with Badal tomorrow. We would urge him to inspect the hailstorm hit areas personally.”

Haryana farmers affected too
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 13
Unseasonal and unprecedented rain, accompanied by hailstorms, at many places in Haryana in the past couple of days has left the farmers of the state devastated. Reports of cattle and birds perishing in the hailstorms have also come in.

Damage to standing crops is particularly severe in southern Haryana. In Rewari district hailstones, weighing between 100 gm and 400 gm, has flattened the mustard crop in several villages.

The agitated farmers blocked traffic in Rewari town demanding immediate financial help. Rewari deputy commissioner Chander Prakash and his team had a tough time pacifying the farmers.

While in Yamunanagar district sunflower crop has been completely wiped off.

A special girdawri is already on in the state to assess the damage caused to the crops by the February rains. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and revenue minister Ajay Singh Yadav said here today that instructions had already been given to the field staff to include the damage to the crops by the March rains too in this special girdawri. The staff had also been instructed to send a composite report by April 10. Hooda said besides the funds available from the calamity fund to be provided by the Centre, the state would make its own budgetary provision to give enhanced compensation to the farmers.

Crops were extensively damaged in the Palwal area of Faridabad district also by the rain and hailstorm yesterday.

Wheat crop on several hundred acres, too, has suffered 75 per cent to 100 per cent damage in Yamunanagar district, which had over 430 mm of rain this month till last evening. The February rains (1185 mm), which broke 70-year record, had also damaged potato and tomato crops.

Other vegetable crops, too, have suffered around 25 per cent damage. The fodder crops have also suffered extensive damage, triggering fears of fodder shortage for animals in the coming days. The maximum damage has been reported to crops in low-lying areas in Bilaspur, Mustafabad and Radaur blocks on the district.

The rains have damaged sunflower crop in parts of Ambala district also. The increased flow in the Markanda and Begna rivers destroyed the vegetable crops on the riverbed and riverbanks. Contract farmers from outside Haryana had sown these crops.

Officials engaged in the special girdawri said the repeated rains and consequent damage to the crops were making their task difficult.

A report from Karnal said low-lying wheat fields in Panipat and Karnal districts were worst affected because if the water was not drained out quickly, it would damage the roots of the crop. Officers, however, said that in these districts if the rains stopped now and temperature went up in the next couple of days, only then it could be beneficial to the wheat crop. Vegetable crops in these districts have also been damaged.

(With inputs from Rahul Das, Nishikand Dwivedi, Vishal Joshi and Nawal Kishore Rastogi).