Bhubaneswar: Expressing concern over damage to crops in unseasonal rains December 9 and 10, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Monday asked five district collectors to submit crop damage reports by December 18.
SRC Bishnupada Sethi has written a letter to the collectors of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack and Jajpur, where 50 mm of rainfall was recorded during the two days.
“Review of rainfall data shows that there has been more than 50 mm of rainfall recorded during 9th and 10th of December 2017 in 19 blocks of these five districts. This might have affected the standing crops in the said areas even though early warnings were issued to harvest the crops and keep the harvested crops under proper cover to avoid any loss due to rain,” Sethi said in his letter.
The SRC asked the collectors to report only the crops damaged in areas other than the 4.07 lakh hectares crop area, which was previously notified as affected by the unseasonal rain during third week of last month.
“In view of the recent rainfall, you are requested to conduct necessary assessment through field enquiry by the joint teams of officials of revenue and agriculture departments to ascertain if any additional crop area has been damaged to the extent of 33 per cent or above and report the same in the enclosed format by December 18 positively,” he said. The collectors were also directed to keep ready the list of affected farmers along with their bank account details for disbursement of agriculture input subsidy.
The government has made it clear that the crop lands already reported and notified as affected by drought or pest attack or previous unseasonal rain during the current year must not be included in this assessment.
As per the rainfall data, seven blocks of Jagatsinghpur districts, six blocks of Puri, four blocks of Kendrapara and one block each of Cuttack and Jajpur had received more than 50 mm rainfall during December 9 and 10.
The SRC has also forwarded a copy of the letter to the collectors of other districts asking them to furnish such report, if there is any crop loss due to the recent rainfall.
Last month, the government had notified 4.07 lakh hectares of cropped area as affected due to unseasonal rain and released Rs 364.76 crore towards agriculture input subsidy from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
PNN