E-Paper
Crops on 1,36,148 hectares in Pune division damaged in last two months
Prima facie assessment of affected region to be done with help of GeoTagging by November 5
Unseasonal rain has affected about 1,36,148 hectares of crops in last two months under the Pune division which comprises of five districts- Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur, according to Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune divisional commissioner. He was speaking during a press conference in the city, on Sunday.
While the worst affected district is Sangli district where a maximum of crops on 65,267 hectares has been affected, he added. 
“In October, Pune division received at least 270.40mm rainfall because of which a huge amount of crops have been damaged. According to the primary information which we have collected from across the division till now crops on 1,36,148 hectares have been damaged,” said Mhaisekar. The major crops damaged include soybean, rice, jowar and fruits, among which grapes are the worst-affected, he added.
“I have personally visited several villages in some of the districts and taken the review of the ground situation. We are trying to complete the prima facie assessment process of all the damaged crops until November 5. While doing these assessments we have instructed to take GeoTag photos of the affected farms to all the talathi, gram sevak (village servant) and krushi sahayak (assistant from the agriculture department) of that particular village who are doing the assessments,” said Mhaisekar.
“We are also collecting information of crops which are covered under private insurance companies according to government assessment process as there is no other alternative,” said Mhaisekar.
“No farmer will be left in the process and if any farmer wants to send details about the damaged crops they can geo-tag and send it on our website,” he added.
For speeding up the process of distributing compensation, Mhaisekar has called a meeting of all the insurance companies officials, agriculture department and district officials this week. Once the assessment process is completed, a report will be sent by the divisional commissioner office to the state government and then according to the government norms compensation will be given to the farmers.
