KENDRAPARA: Harvested paddy crop worth lakhs of rupees was reduced to ashes after unidentified miscreants set it on fire at Sananka village in Aul block here on Thursday night. The paddy was stacked in an agriculture field in the village.
Farmers Harekrushna Padhi, Udakar Padhi and Gayadhar Padhi lodged a complaint with Aul police stating that they had harvested paddy crop grown over nine acre of land and stacked it in the field. In the night, some miscreants torched the entire paddy stack after pouring kerosene on it.
The incident took place at around 10 pm. The affected farmers and their family members desperately tried to douse the fire and retrieve their half-burnt paddy crop but to no avail. On being informed, fire service personnel rushed to the village and managed to control the fire from spreading to nearby agriculture fields.
Udakar said, “We have lost our entire harvest to the fire. We had availed loans from the bank to raise paddy crop. How will we repay the loan now?” Former Aul MLA Debendra Sharma urged the administration to provide compensation to the affected farmers and take stern action against the miscreants who set the harvested crop on fire. Aul IIC Dilip Sahoo said basing on the FIR, a case was registered. Investigation is underway and the culprits will be nabbed soon.