Kerala - Kannur   

Perumbadavu struggling to tide over monsoon destruction

Staff Reporter

Assuring help: Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy interacting with farmers and merchants who suffered losses at Perumbadavu on Sunday.

KANNUR: Perumbadavu and nearby areas are still struggling to cope with the large-scale destruction of standing crops and property in the heavy gale that swept different parts of the district on Saturday.

Standing crops and structures that stood on a two-kilometre-long stretch at Perumbadavu were damaged in the monsoon calamity on Saturday morning. Power supply remained disrupted in the area as elsewhere in the affected areas.

Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy, who visited Perumbadavu on Sunday, interacted with farmers and merchants who suffered losses. She received representations from them.

The Minister assured them that Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) officials had been instructed to restore power supply in the area in two days. Revenue and Agriculture officials would assess property and crop loss in two days and take steps to release compensation, she said.

According to officials of the Agriculture Department, the total agricultural losses in the district were estimated at Rs.415 lakh as per preliminary information.

Over 2,300 farmers were affected by the calamity on Saturday. Over 450 affected farmers were at Perumbadavu.

Simon George Palamoottil, local farmer, said large areas under rubber cultivation at Perumbadavu were damaged. His father, Palamoottil Vakkachan, lost 160 coconut palms and nearly 300 arecanut palms, he said.

Ms. Sreemathy, who was accompanied by CKP Padmanabhan, MLA, and District Collector Ishita Roy, said a special order will be issued for the immediate release of funds meant to rebuild class rooms of the B. V.J.M. High School at Perumbadavu.

Compensation for families of three persons who died in the calamity would be released on Monday.

A meeting of farmers in the Chapparappadavu and Eramom-Kuttur panchayats would be held at Perumbadavu at 5 p.m. on Monday.

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