WB: Rain destroys crops in North 24 Paraganas

Barasat, July 7: Agricultural produce including standing crops worth Rs one crore have been lost due to recent rains in North 24 Parganas.

The District Agriculture Office's preliminary estimations said that more than 25,000 hectre of agricultural land had been inundated, damaging crops, besides paddy, particularly Aush and flowers.

Most of the paddy cultivated in over 15,000 acre of land were damaged. Besides, seeds and Aman over vast areas were damaged due to water logging in most parts of the district, including Basirhat and Bangaon sub-divisions.

Loss of flowers and plants in about 250 hectare of land adversely affected the coffer of farmers.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate Prabhat Mishra had said nearly 7 lakh people suffered from rains in across the district. While vast areas of Barrackpore between Khardah and South Dum Dum was inundated, leaving a few thousand people homeless. About 4000 people were evacuated in Baranagar area giving temporary shelters in 10 camps.

Municipal authorities in the Barrackpore sub-division sought relief materials from the district authorities for the affected people while state Finance minister Dr Asim Dasgupta convened a meeting of the heads of the municipalities of the district on July 8 at Kamarhati to take stock of the situation arising out of water logging.

Altogether 16 pumps were deployed to drain out water from the waterlogged areas, official sources said.

UNI