Crop on 13K acres damaged, several villages still submerged

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, August 5

While the district administration on Friday said crop on 13,000 acres of land across 40 villages in the district had been affected by the floods, the assessment of damages is still an ongoing process with many villages still submerged in the district.

Salwinder Singh Jania, a farmer, said, “All the paddy crop in our villages has been destroyed. Water remained in the village for a month, nothing is left. The formal assessment of girdawari in our village hasn’t been done because much of the crop is still under water but it is clear that the crop won’t survive so total crop loss compensation for all our crop should be given. Water upto several feet in fields still remain in several villages like Jania, Jania Chahal, Mehrajwala, Sardarwala, Mundi Cholian, Mundi Shehrian, Mandala. Mandala Channa among others.”

Kulwinder Singh from Gidderpindi said, “Gidderpindi has collectively nearly 2,000 acres of crop of which a substantial amount has been damaged. Water has receded from our villages but crop losses are estimated at over 1,500 acres of area. Rest will be clear after assessment.”

Shahkot farmer Nirmal Singh said, “A team of patwaris had come to our village yesterday. They have made realistic estimates of the crop damage for which queries were made to us. We are happy with the assessment so far. Our village is upstream so it has yet sustained limited damage. But the downstream village shave been significantly affected with almost all their crops decimated. Many of these downstream villages are still under water.”Notably, until yesterday, the district administration had pegged crop damages at 13000 acres of land across 40 villages of district which had been affected by floods.

DC Vishesh Sarangal on Friday had visited the flood affected villages in Lohian block to review the ongoing special Girdawari. He visited villages Mehrajwala, Gidderpindi and Kutbewal,and along with the loss of crops, also assured compensation on the damage to houses and livestock as well as public infrastructure, including roads, electricity poles etc.