Hyderabad: Unseasonable rainfall and hailstorms over the past two days caused damage on agricultural crops in various districts of Telangana.
On Sunday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao issued a directive to the officials asking them to conduct an evaluation of the damages caused to the crops.
The Chief Minister has asked Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari to assess the damage to crops caused by untimely rainfall in the Choppadandi and Karimnagar rural mandal of the Karimnagar district and elsewhere in the state. The Chief Secretary was tasked with contacting the District Collectors to collect information on the extent of the damage to the crops.
Unseasonal rains and hailstorms have ruined crops in several areas of Telangana for the second time this summer.
Meanwhile, Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalar toured some regions of Karimnagar district on Sunday to assess the damage to crops from untimely downpours.
Farmers were encouraged by his promise of full compensation from the KCR government. He said that crop loss was unprecedented in several areas of the district.
The minister has stated that farmers have been handed a second blow before they have had a chance to recuperate from the first calamity.
He said the losses were minimal because the state government had paddy procurement hubs up and running in a timely manner.
Kamalakar promised the afflicted farmers that the government would buy their flooded paddy.
Farmers in the Jangaon district are demanding compensation for crop damage caused by untimely rains, and they have organised a protest on a highway.
Crops on about 2.28 lakh acres were damaged last month due to unseasonable rains and hailstorms. The compensation was proclaimed by the chief minister at the time to be Rs 10,000 per acre.
The Agriculture Department, however, opted to only compensate 1.51 lakh acres after conducting a survey. The sum will be transferred into the bank accounts of 1,30,988 farmers, according to the officials.—Inputs from Agencies