Unseasonal rains hit hard Telangana paddy farmers

Farmers in parts of Telangana suffered heavy crop losses due to unseasonal rain on Sunday night. Paddy ready to be harvested, and the produce kept near procurement centres, suffered huge damage due to the heavy rains accompanied by strong winds in Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircilla, Medak, Nirmal and other districts.

In some places, farmers staged protests on Monday, demanding that the state government compensate them for the losses.

They alleged that the delay by the authorities in procuring paddy led to losses. The produce stored in the open near the procurement centres was either washed away or soaked in rain water.

Farmers complained that they had been waiting for 20 days for paddy to be procured and the delay led to huge damage. They said the authorities failed to arrange trucks for paddy to be transported from the fields to the procurement centres. In other places, the authorities did not arrange tarpaulins at procurement centres to protect the paddy. In Kamareddy, Rajanna Sircilla and Karimnagar districts, the farmers staged a sit-in or resorted to road blockades in support of their demand. A group of farmers sat on the Nizamabad-Armoor highway.

Four people, including a woman, died in landslides triggered by incessant downpour here, police said on Monday. Two people were killed when their house was hit by a massive landslide near Punjabi Dhaba.

A woman is still trapped inside the bamboo house with a tin roof, which came crashing down on Sunday night due to the impact of the landslide, Capital Superintendent of Police (SP) Jimmy Chiram said. While two bodies have been retrieved from the debris, the fate of the woman is yet to be known, he said.

The deceased have been identified as 50-year-old Nagen Barman and Tapas Rai (15), while Kusum Rai (35) is yet to be rescued.