With the incident of, wheat crops ready to harvest, catching fire coming from some parts of the state, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials have asked farmers to remove the crops from at least 4 meters of the area surrounding the transmitters. Around 1 acre of crop reduced to ashes in Safipur village of the district on Sunday.
Farmers here have alleged the sparks from the transmitter leading to the incident. A similar incident was also reported in Sangrur where around 32 acres of wheat crop was burnt, suspecting to be due to the sparks from the power lines. Officials in the PSPCL north zone informed, “It is yet to be ascertained whether the fire took place due to transmitters or due to the carelessness of the farmer.”
“We have asked the concerned junior engineer (JE) to inquire about the incident,”a PSPCL official said. Chief engineer north zone Devinder Singh Tiwana said, “It is the responsibility of farmers to take necessary precautions to prevent fire in the fields during harvesting season.” “Farmers should always be prepared for any untoward incident,” said Tiwana. Last year, PSPCL north zone that covers 37 divisions in four districts had received a total of 42 complaints about fire allegedly caused due to spark from the transmitters.
“If farmers detect a low hanging wire near their field or any other power default, they should immediately contact concerned JE of the area,” he added. PSPCL recently issued advisory for the farmers mentioning precautionary steps like not using harvester combine in the fields at nights and keeping it away from power lines, not smoking near harvested crops, not putting harvested crops near power lines or transmitters, always keeping buckets full of water near the field. Incidents reported last year from north zone; five from Jalandhar, seven from Kapurthala, six from Nawanshahr, 24 from Hoshiarpur.
{{/usCountry}}“If farmers detect a low hanging wire near their field or any other power default, they should immediately contact concerned JE of the area,” he added. PSPCL recently issued advisory for the farmers mentioning precautionary steps like not using harvester combine in the fields at nights and keeping it away from power lines, not smoking near harvested crops, not putting harvested crops near power lines or transmitters, always keeping buckets full of water near the field. Incidents reported last year from north zone; five from Jalandhar, seven from Kapurthala, six from Nawanshahr, 24 from Hoshiarpur.
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