Woman killed, 3 injured, houses damaged in strong storm

Srinagar, July 8 (UNI) A strong storm, accompanied by heavy rains and hail, killed a woman, wounded three others and damaged standing crops, fruit and vegetables and more than two dozen houses in the Kashmir valley overnight.

A police spokesman said very strong winds accompanied by heavy rains and hail lashed Kukroosa, Lelam, Dolipora, Mawar and Harkarpora in the frontier district of Kupwara.

Roofs of about two dozen houses were blown away, causing injuries to four persons.

The injured were admitted to hospital where one woman Naseema Begum died.

Standing crops, vegetables, fruit trees were also damaged causing extensive loss to farmers.

Pampore MLA Mir Zahoor Ahmed has demanded immediate relief to the farmers for the damages caused to standing crops, fruits and vegetables in different areas of the south Kashmir, particularly Pampore constituency, by the hail storm and heavy rains last evening.

He asked the concerned authorities to depute a joint team of revenue, agriculture and horticulture departments to conduct the survey of the area for assessing the losses so that early relief be paid to the affected farmers.

Mir Zahoor also said that crop insurance policy be introduced in the state to compensate the farmers for their intermittent losses caused due to natural calamities like hail storm, heavy rains, floods, drought and diseases.

UNI