Pre-monsoon showers delight Amritsar residents & farmers alike

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, June 17

Moderate rainfall on Thursday night in the district brought relief to city residents and farming community. With the first rain of the season and cloudy weather throughout the day, residents got respite from scorching heat. Light showers were witnessed in some areas of the city on Friday too.

The rain will compensate farmers, who started paddy transplantation on June 15. It has left farmers smiling as they said it would help them in finishing the transplantation process early.

The city residents, too, were delighted as showers lowered the temperature and provided them a much-needed respite from scorching heat.

Agriculture officials said the rain would boost the pace of paddy transplantation as farmers would not have to wait for tubewells to inundate their fields.

“The rain is of immense help to the farmers. Besides, it lowers dependence on groundwater. The rain would accelerate the pace of paddy transplantation. The government’s decision to delay the paddy transplantation till June 15 has paid off as the area has witnessed moderate rainfall with the start of transplantation season. No doubt, rain will increase the pace of work but at the same time it would deepen the labour shortage crisis. With more than usual fields ready for transplanting, the demand for labour has already increased,” said Sukhdev Singh of Khankot village.

Amritsar region has been witnessing heatwave during the past one month. There has been no rain in the past three months.

The first rain of the season is also a wakeup call for the MC authorities. Pits on the potholed-roads of the city were filled with the water. Rainwater accumulated in the low-lying areas which would provide breeding ground to mosquitoes.

“The MC should start desilting and fogging to tackle the problems expected to come up in the upcoming rainy season. Roads should have been recarpeted before rains. Now, the MC should conduct patch work so residents don’t face inconvenience,” said Harish Kumar, a resident of Sultanwind Road.