HANAMKONDA/JANGAON/KARIMNAGAR/ADILABAD/SANGAREDDY: Rain, at some places accompanied by hailstorm and lightning, lashed many parts of the State in the wee hours of Wednesday, much to the distress of the farming community.
Farmer S Pochayya, 62, died on the spot while another farmer Kondaiah was critically injured when lightning struck them while they were covering paddy in Balwantapur village in Thoguta mandal with plastic sheets. At Pegadapalli mandal in Jagtial district, 30 heads of sheep died after being struck by lightning.
Bejjur mandal received 75.9 mm rain, Tandur 69.1 mm and Dasturabad 15.4 mm. Dhool Mitta and Maddur mandals of Siddipet district received 52 mm of rainfall while Toopran mandal of Medak district received 60 mm. Apart from these three mandals, Siddipet district’s Maridoddi mandal received 39.8 mm and Thogita 26 mm.
In Islampur village of Toupran mandal of Medak district, 60 mm of rainfall was recorded. As if in one voice, farmers blamed the delay by the administration in procuring paddy for their distress. Farmers had brought their paddy for procurement at the IKP centres but to their horror, their hard work was soaked in rainwater that was accompanied by gusts of winds at isolated places.
While farmers are in a hurry to sell their produce, the administration in most of the districts has not yet started the procurement process. M Somanna, a farmer from Hanamkonda, said that he had dumped his paddy in the IKP centre about a week ago, it had not even been weighed.
He alleged that the state government did not take any measures for the proper procurement of agricultural produce. “Even gunny bags were not arranged in adequate quantity, and despite predictions of rains, no precautions were taken to provide tarpaulin sheets to protect our paddy,” said Somanna.
Futile wait: Mancherial and Nirmal ryots a distressed lot
The rain also left farmers in Nirmal and Mancherial districts in distress with their paddy crops soaked while waiting to be procured at the IKP centres. A few trees were uprooted on a road near Indhanpelli bridge between Adilabad and Mancherial district. Jannaram sub-inspector Satish Kumar pressed into service a JCB and to remove the green debris and clear the road for traffic.
Paddy damage was reported from Luxettipet, Dhandapelli, Jannaram mandals in Mancherial district and Kadam, Khanapur and Dasturabad mandals in Nirmal district. The farmers alleged that they diligently brought paddy to the procurement centres but the officials delayed in purchasing and also did not provide tarpaulin or sheets to save it from unseasonal rains.
In Tandur and Nenel mandal, mango farmers were in despair as the heavy wind blew away the fruit from the trees. In erstwhile Karimnagar district, A Anitha, a woman farmer, said that her 120 quintals of paddy that she had brought to the Durshed procurement centre was damaged. She said even standing crops in the district were damaged. “We have been waiting for the past 15 days for procurement to begin, but to no avail. If it rains once again, the paddy crop we harvest will start germinating,” Anitha said.
In Peddapalli, standing crops in hundreds of acres were flattened. In Karimnagar town, due to an unscientific drainage network, drains started overflowing at several places sewage water entered houses.
No TRS leader visited the rain-affected areas, while Congress, BJP and leaders of Left parties did. In Sangareddy, farmers tried their best to salvage the paddy being washed away by the rainwater, but to little avail.