VIJAYAWADA: Heavy rains lashed Visakhapatnam city and different parts of North coastal districts during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Moderate to heavy rains were also reported in Konaseema, Kadapa and parts of the NTR district in the wee hours of Sunday. Farmers of a few districts had to face the wrath of the untimely rains, damaging their crops ready for harvest.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a meeting with senior officials on Sunday and reviewed the situation arising out of untimely rains for the last two days. He directed the officials to complete the enumeration of the crop loss in a week and take steps to help the farmers suffering crop loss. Later, citing details of preliminary enumeration, Minister for I&PR Ch Srinivasa Venugopal Krishna informed that as many as 25 mandals of five districts have reported crop loss.
“In 15 mandals of Nandyal district, maize, paddy, black gram and chilly crops were damaged. Crops of maize suffered damage in five mandals of the NTR district, three mandals of Parvathipuram Manyam district and a mandal in the Kurnool district. Banana crop damage was reported from Parvathipuram Manyam, while black gram and cotton crops damage was reported at a mandal in Prakasam district,” he explained.
“The damage is confined to only a few mandals. As per CM’s order, the farmers will be compensated in form of input subsidy at the earliest,” he said.
District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu said that the details of the district-wise crop loss would be sent to the government for providing compensation to farmers in the region. Meanwhile, according to Nellore district officials, 129 villages in the district have suffered the wrath of the untimely rains. Damage to paddy crops was recorded on around 3,597 acres, Bengal gram on 600 acres, cotton on 250 acres, sesame on 22 acres and groundnut on 20 acres. Sarvepalli constituency reported maximum damage due to the heavy rains for the past two days. Nearly 41 villages were affected in the segment.
Farmers in Kadapa and Annamaiah districts also faced the loss of horticulture crops, especially, papaya, banana, mango, lemon, watermelon, turmeric and other crops. Heavy rains were reported in Amalapuram, Sakhinetipalli and Razole of Ambedkar Konaseema district till Sunday noon and a few parts of Kakinada also received the rains during the intervening night.
In Visakhapatnam city, the incessant rains continued throughout the night. Cricket fans breathed a sigh of relief as the rains stopped in the morning allowing them to enjoy the ODI match between India and Australia held in the city on Sunday. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds with speeds of 30-40 km ph likely at isolated places over all the coastal districts.