Fire destroys crops on 14 acres in Mohali district

Mohali, April 16

Standing crops on 14 acres were destroyed in a farm fire at Sector 125 this evening. The eyewitnesses said the fire, fanned by the evening breeze, spread across five acres within 10 minutes while the landlords and youths were calling the fire officials.

Aghast at the scale of destruction, a handful of youths and local residents made desperate attempts to douse the fire with tree branches; however, the fire raged on for half an hour before the first fire tender from Kharar MC reached the spot. “Six months of our sweat and toil have been snatched away by fate,” a farmer lamented.

Fire officials said the exact cause of the fire was not known.

Former Health Minister and Congress ticket hopeful for the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha seat, Balbir Singh Sidhu, said, “Girdawari of the land must be done at the earliest to compensate the farmers.”