Fire engulfs standing sugarcane, wheat crops in Karnal village

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 19

The standing wheat and sugarcane crops on around 50 acres of land were gutted in a major fire that broke out in the fields of Gheer village on Thursday morning. The fields belonged to 10 villagers.

The reason behind the fire incident is yet to be ascertained.

Farmers whose standing crops have been gutted are in a state of shock as they have incurred losses worth lakhs of rupees. They have also demanded compensation of their loss.

It took around two hours for two fire tenders to douze the flames of the fire that reduced the wheat crop to ashes.

Around five acres of land with wheat crops of Indraj Singh, four acres of Sushil Kumar, six acres of Shiv Kumar, seven acres each of Gyan Chand and Subhash, two acres each of Angrej Singh, Jagpal, Sunny and Manoj, five acres of Bhulla Ram were gutted.

Farmers said they noticed flames in the fields around 10:30 am and within a few minutes it engulfed the wheat and sugarcane crops.

People started gathering and tried to douze the flames before the arrival of the fire tenders.

Indraj Singh, a victim farmer, said they had lost everything in the fire incident. The government should compensate them for the loss.

He said the farming community was already reeling under a financial crisis and this incident would further increase to their woes.

MLA assures timely relief for gutted crop 

Ambala: Ambala City MLA Asim Goel on Thursday visited various villages including Isamilpur, Malaur, Baknaur, Khaira, Mahmudpur, Mathedi Sekhan and Ghaghru to assess the level of damage to standing wheat crops due to fire incidents. Several acres of standing crop got engulfed recently thus causing 

loss to agriculturists. Goel, who held talks with affected farmers was accompanied by tehsildar TR Gautam and marking board XEN Kuldeep Saini. He directed the officials to assess loss so that farmers could be compensated at the earliest. Goel assured affected farmers that he would take up the issue with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and would request him to award maximum compensation. 

Gautam said concerned patwaris have been directed to assess the damage. TNS