However, the prevailing weather has become a cause of worry among farmers and agriculture experts, especially in the cotton belt from where reports of downpour have come. Unfortunately, the rain has been accompanied by winds that often leads to flattening of crop.Though it is difficult to know the exact assessment of the loss to the cotton crop at this stage, experts say the damage to the crop could be up to 10 per cent.
The PSEB Chairman, Mr Y.S. Ratra, said because of the downpour the power situation had become comfortable and consequently all type of power regulatory measures and power cuts imposed on various industrial consumers had been relaxed.
Because of the fall in the demand for power, two units of the Ropar thermal plant have been shut down and the remaining four are being operated at the minimal power generating level.
The daily demand for power, that was hovering around 1,300 lakh units, has come down by 400 lakh units in the past two days. And the agricultural sector, which was earlier being supplied power for 8 hours daily, is now being given power round the clock.
The level of water in the Gobind Sagar reservoir at Bhakra Dam has gone up to 1,676.28 feet. However, it is below the maximum level that has been fixed at 1,680 feet by the Bhakra Beas Management Board. The outflow of water from the reservoir is about 22,865 cusecs and inflow in the reservoir is about 31,899 cusecs.
The Director, Agriculture, Mr Balwinder Singh Sidhu, said heavy rain had caused damage to the cotton crop. If the weather persisted for some more days, it could lead to the build-up of pest attack on cotton crop.
Dr Gurmeet Singh Buttar, a cotton expert of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, who is based at Bathinda, said farmers should drain out water from the cotton fields immediately.
From Bathinda, 80mm of rainfall was reported by this afternoon, Amritsar 73 mm, Ambala 26 mm and Ludhiana 15 mm. However, there has been less rain in areas closer to Chandigarh, especially Patiala and Ropar.
