Overnight rains damage wheat grains in Punjab mandis

In the mandis of Doaba region and Fazilka, thousands of grain sacks were seen floating or soaked in muddy rainwater.

Pardeep Kumar, a commission agent from Doaba, said, “Though we had arranged tarpaulins and wooden racks to deal with unprecedented weather conditions, hundreds of gunny bags got exposed to the rain. The extent of damage can be assessed only after the water drains.”

Jalandhar’s chief agriculture officer Randhir Singh said wheat harvesting has been completed in the district. “As far as open wheat stock in grain markets is concerned, the mandi board had made adequate arrangements to deal with unfavourable weather conditions,” he said.

Fazilka deputy commissioner Amarpreet Kaur claimed that over 5.23 lakh wheat bags were lifted from grain markets across the district in a single day to save stocks from damage.

Traders, meanwhile, said that despite repeated requests to authorities for timely wheat lifting and improvement of the drainage system of the mandis, no action was taken. “We had warned them many times, but the lifting of wheat was never done. Now lakhs of wheat bags are lying soaked. This is a disaster,” an aggrieved commission agent Lakhwinder Singh said.

Goldy Sachdeva, president of the arhtiya association, said, “If the sewerage system had been fixed on time, this situation wouldn’t have arisen,” he said. “The loss is huge, but the exact damage cannot be assessed until the water is drained. And sadly, even by morning, no officials came to the mandi.”