ALL IS LOST: Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashempur inspecting a flooded sugarcane field on the banks of the Bhima on the outskirts of Afsalpur town in Gulbarga on Saturday.

GULBARGA: With desperation writ large on their faces, farmers pleaded with every official and elected representative who visited the flood-hit villages on the banks of the Bhima, to save their crops which was under water.

Similar scenes

The story and scene was the same in every village visited on Saturday by Minister for Agriculture Bandeppa Kashempur and zilla panchayat president Yellappa Karkunde on the river banks in Afsalpur taluk in the district, which was the worst-affected in the flood.

Review meeting

After the Minister held a review of the situation with the department officials at the Government guesthouse in the city in the morning, he decided to visit some of the affected villages. The Minister's first stop was in the outskirts of Afsalpur town where the water pumping station was submerged.

Water had entered fields causing extensive damage to standing crops on hundreds of hectares of fertile land.

Patient hearing

A farmer Baswantrao Patil was in tears when he told the Minister that his sugarcane crop on more than 40 acres of land was now under water and he had no hopes of retrieving anything. A visibly moved Kashempur gave a patient hearing to the farmer and said that the Government would help of the farmers in distress. The farmer told the Minister that he was losing the crops to flood for the second year in succession.

Devangoan Bridge

Later, the Minister paid a visit to the Devangoan Bridge where the water level had crossed the danger mark and was rising sharply flooding thousands of hectares of land abutting the banks of the river in Gulbarga and Bijapur district.

Mr. Kashempur accompanied by Mr. Karkunde and other top officials used a motor boat to cross the flooded Bhima at Kudiganur to visit the stranded villagers and also inspect the damage caused to standing crops. The Minister also visited Shivur, Ballundigi and Hire Mannur.

He said crop loss was extensive in the district and as per the initial estimates prepared by the department, more than 10,600 hectares of land was affected and the loss to standing crops was Rs. 25 crore. However, this figure kept on changing every passing hour with more fields coming under the water. The exact loss could be ascertained only after water receded. Mr. Kashempur said he would tour the flood-hit areas in Belgaum, Bijapur and Bagalkot districts extensively from August 16.

Compensation

The Minister, who was non-committal about the compensation to be paid to farmers who lost their crops, said the Government was aware of the serious situation and the fact that farmers on the banks of the Krishna and Bhima were losing crops to floods for the second year in succession. A decision would be taken shortly, he said.

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