Rain lashes few places in Punjab, Haryana; farmers worried

Light to moderate rain lashed few places in Punjab and Haryana today, increasing the worries of farmers in the two agrarian states over unseasonal showers destroying their crops at harvesting stage.
Among other places the rain lashed Chandigarh, Mohali, Ropar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Panchkula, Kurukshetra and Kalka.
The local Meteorological Department has forecast more rains at few places in the two states until tomorrow.
The wheat procurement is set to begin soon and if heavy rains or hailstorm occur at this stage, they can be damaging, Punjab Mandi Board President Ajmer Singh Lakhowal said.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) President B S Rajewal said that farmers in the two states were praying and keeping their fingers crossed in the hope that it does not rain.

"No farmer wants rains at this stage, even if these were to fall down in the form of drops of gold. The wheat and oilseed crops are ready and if there is heavy rain or hail followed by high velocity winds, then farmers, who are eyeing a bumper crop, will suffer heavy loss," Rajewal said.

A farmer from Kurukshetra said that the farmers were hoping the weather holds good otherwise it can damage their wheat crop.
Lakhowal, who is also President of BKU (Lakhowal), said "if the weather does not play spoilsport, overall, we don't see much impact, as the government has made all necessary arrangements for procuring record 140 lakh tonne of wheat, which we are expecting during rabi marketing 2013-14 season starting April 1".

Lakhowal also said that heavy rains recently had caused some damage to the crops at some places in Punjab, for which special girdwari (revenue survey) had been ordered.
Meanwhile, a MeT official said that current change in the weather was due to a Western Disturbance over North Pakistan and adjoining J&K.
The maximum temperatures in the plains of Punjab and Haryana have been settling in the range of 26-29 degrees Celsius during the past few days, which is 2-3 degrees below normal level.
The days will be partly cloudy in Haryana and Punjab and light rain or thunder showers may occur at some places followed by thunder squalls with wind speed exceeding 45 kmph at isolated places.