Lax rain worries Punjab

Chandigarh, July 13
Erratic monsoon continues to cause worry to farmers and agriculture department officials in the region. Barring a few areas, rainfall has been scanty in the region, especially Punjab and Haryana. Though monsoon was expected to arrive on July 1 in the region, rainfall till today has been disappointing.

“In fact, there has not been a single spell of rainfall lasting a few hours in any part of the region”, said Gurdev Singh, a farmer from Longowal village. Because of inadequate rainfall, the consumption of diesel had gone up manifold, he added.

Director, agriculture, Punjab, Balwinder Singh Sidhu, said he had also got a report regarding scanty and scattered rainfall from various parts of the country. “I have talked to senior officials of the met department in this regard and they say that there is no possibility of good rainfall in the next few days”, he added.

“As power supply is adequate, farmers have been able to irrigate paddy crop adequately in the region”, he said. There was no report of damage to crop because of scanty rainfall, he added. “I will ask the canals department to release water into the Kotla branch immediately keeping in view the low rainfall in the region”, he said.

S.C. Bhan, director, India Meteorological Department, said three depressions had developed in the Bay of Bengal during the last some days. However, they did not advance much towards northern states like Punjab and Haryana.