Rain sparks fall in mercury
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 16 — Intermittent rain over the entire north-western region and snow in the upper reaches of the Himalayas since last evening have made temperatures plummet and the mercury has dropped by several degrees, heralding the onset of an early winter.

Besides warning of an early winter, stocks of paddy lying in the open in grain markets of Punjab and Haryana have been hit badly by the rain. Reports of distress sale have come in from Abohar.

Reports of snow have come in the Pangi valley, Lahaul Spiti, the Dhauladhar ranges and Kinnaur, in Himachal Pradesh.

In the plains the entire region received rain, forcing people to stay indoors and even switch off the fans. Reports of rain have come in from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

In Shimla, 6 mm of rain has resulted in the night temperature, dipping to 9.1° C. In the Union Territory of Chandigarh daytime temperature has fallen from 33°C on October 14 to 22.2°C today, i.e. 9 degrees below normal. The city has received 2 cm of rain till this evening.

Rain has brought down the daytime temperature in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Hissar, Karnal, Rohtak, Delhi, Jammu, Ambala, Shimla and Dharamsala have by 4 degrees to 6 degrees since October 14. In all cities the temperature remained below normal. Ludhiana and Hissar with 18 degrees respectively as the morning temperatures were the coldest places in the plains, the local met office said.

In Chandigarh, people returning from offices were caught in the downpour in evening hours. Roadside mechanics and rehriwalas lost business. Rehrimarkets in Sectors 19 and 22 that are popular among the city's middle class were in bad shape. Same was true for the various Divali mela organisers in Sectors 34 and 22.

The met office has said western disturbances over northern Pakistan and its neighbouring areas accompanied by an upper air pressure system over Haryana and Punjab were causing the spell of rain.

A trough — with low pressure from both sides — had formed and it was running parallel from north-east Afghanistan to south-east Pakistan. Besides this, low pressure over Saurashtra in Gujarat was also causing rain.

The weather office has predicted moderate to rather heavy rain or snowfall at many places in Himachal Pradesh. Moderate to heavy rain will occur in Punjab and Haryana. Squalls with a wind speed of at least 45 km per hour are likely.

The meteorological office has given a warning that heavy rainfall will occur in Himachal in the next two days.

LUDHIANA: The rain is a welcome relief as it cleared the smog which had shrouded the city since Thursday. Smoke from the burning of paddy straw in the fields had created the smog, leading to panic among local residents. Vehicular traffic and pollution from industrial units had aggravated the problem. The smog had reduced the visibility, and caused irritation in the eyes.

Farmers suffer heavy loss
Rain hits paddy, cotton crops
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 16 — As the weather continues to play villain, farmers in Punjab have suffered a heavy loss of several hundred crores of rupees.

Due to the prevailing spell of inclement weather, paddy procurement operations in the state have been affected and paddy brought to procurement centres have been damaged.

The cotton crop has also been affected in the Malwa belt.

According to official sources, the loss on the cotton front will be around Rs 300 crore. The Punjab Agriculture Department had estimated a yield of 15 lakh bales in the state in August this year when all was well with the cotton crop. But attack of American bollworm and a spell of bad weather in the last week of September had upset all these calculations.

According to the latest revised estimate, the Punjab Agriculture Department is expecting an output of 12 lakh bales of cotton in the state. But this seems to be an over-estimate. Private cotton trade sources say that the output of cotton in the state will not be more than seven lakh bales and the loss on this front to farmers will be nearly Rs 800 crore.

According to reports coming from the field, traders from other states, especially Gujarat region, are not showing much interest in purchasing cotton from Punjab. Only local traders are buying the cotton, it is learnt. The arrival of cotton is also very slow compared to the previous years. Sources said that in Kotkapura cotton market only 50 to 70 bales of cotton were arriving daily compared to last year's figure of 300 to 400 bales daily during the corresponding period.

Likewise, there will be a shortfall of at least 20 lakh tonnes in the paddy yield in the state. The Punjab Agriculture Department had estimated the paddy yield in the state at around 120 lakh tonnes. But now as the paddy crop has suffered a loss between 20 per cent and 25 per cent, the output is expected to be around 100 lakh tonnes. However, official sources are still hopeful of the paddy yield to touch 110 lakh tonnes.

Official sources said that the loss on the paddy front would be about Rs 450 crore but according to unofficial sources it would be around Rs 900 crore. Though there is a big difference between the official and unofficial calculation of the loss both official and unofficial circles admit that it was a big setback for Punjab's farmers.

Sources said that although the Punjab Government had ordered a special girdawri for assessing the loss to paddy and cotton crops, so far no decision had been taken as far as granting compensation was concerned. Sources said that there was a laid down procedure for granting compensation to affected farmers but the government could overrule such procedure to enhance the compensation.