The sudden downpour that lashed many parts of the State including Hyderabad on Tuesday evening wreaked havoc claiming lives of at least 10 people and causing crop damage to thousands of acres.

The sweltering heat conditions kept the people on the edge for the last few weeks as day temperatures crossed 42 degrees Celsius. Instead of bringing relief from the scorching heat, the sudden rainfall caused loss of human life and damage to crops in thousands of acres in erstwhile Nizamabad, Karimanagar and other districts in the State.

Seven people lost their lives after a rain-soaked wall caved in Bachupally on Tuesday night, while two bodies that were swept in rain was found in Begumpet nala on Wednesday morning. The police shifted the bodies of seven persons – Thirupathi Maji, Shankar, Raju, Kushi, Ram Yadav, Geetha and four-year-old Himanshu, all hailing from Odisha and Chhattisgarh, for conducting an autopsy while two bodies found in Begumpet nala were preserved at the Gandhi hospital mortuary for identification.

Following information that the unseasonal downpour extensively caused damage to crops, officials of Agriculture department on Wednesday asked the District Agriculture Officer (DAOs) to conduct field inspection in their district concerned to assess the crop damage and submit a detailed report.

“We gave instructions to ADOs to immediately conduct field inspections for assessing the crop damage and asked them to submit district-wise reports by today evening,” a senior official of the Agriculture department said. He said the sudden showers lashed the State at a time when the department started disbursing one-time relief to farmers, who suffered crop damage during heavy rainfall occurred between March 16 to 21 in 10 districts.

The State government released an amount of Rs.15.81 crore as a one-time measure, a relief of Rs. 10,000 per acre to farmers who suffered the loss in 10 districts Kamareddy, Nizamabad, Rajanna Sircilla, Siddipet, Medak, Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial, Karimnagar and Sangareddy.

The Civil Supplies department is also seeking information about the loss suffered by farmers after their paddy got drenched due to unseasonal rains. Instructions were issued to officials to collect information from Paddy Procurement Centres across the State.

Source - https://www.deccanchronicle.com