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Badal unable to reach flood-affected villages

Moga: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday failed to visit the flood-affected villages of the district as his helicopter developed a snag.

Earlier, the district administration had reviewed the situation of the flood-affected villages and said it was improving following receding of flood waters in the swollen Sutlej river.

The administration denied rumours of widening of Bandala breach of Dhusi Band and said that the situation was quite under control with the help of the army, volunteers and civilians engaged in plugging the breach.

Chandigarh: Food crops in over 65,000 acres of land are feared to have been damaged by heavy rains in Punjab in the past several days that has left fields flooded, according to reports from flood-hit areas. The damage has been caused mainly to paddy, maize and vegetables, according to a senior official of the Punjab Agriculture Department.

“Heavy rains have impacted almost 15-20 per cent of the vegetable crops grown in Punjab,” State Horticulture Director Baldev Singh said.

The exact loss of crops can be known only after the revenue assessment, ordered by Punjab government, is completed, the official said.

As per the report prepared by the department, 15,000 acres of cultivated land each in Ropar and Kapurthala was affected, while 10,000 acres in Ferozepur, 11,500 acres in Tarn Taran, 5,000 acres in Gurdaspur, 5,000 acres in Moga, 3,000 acres in Jalandhar and 150 acres in Amritsar are submerged in water due to swollen rivers of Sutlej, Ravi and Ghaggar, causing breaches at several places in the State.

Farm experts pointed out that there would be considerable damage to maize crop as it could not recover once the fields are flooded with water. However, they further said that paddy crop could recoup if the water level in the fields starts receding within 2-3 days. Punjab has brought an area of 26.70 lakh hectares under paddy cultivation and 1.70 lakh hectares under maize cultivation during this kharif season.

As far as vegetables are concerned, almost 15-20 per cent vegetables including chilli, pumpkin, bitter gourd, ladyfinger and cabbage have been adversely affected because of water logging in the fields. — PTI

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