Rain, hailstorm lash parts of border areas

Even as rain, accompanied by hailstorm and high velocity winds, lashed parts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts last night, no damage to the wheat crop has been reported.

Even as rain, accompanied by hailstorm and high velocity winds, lashed parts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts on Wednesday night, no damage to the wheat crop has been reported.

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Official sources of these districts confirmed that the hail did not do much damage to the crops, especially the wheat crop, which is ready for harvest. The damage was minimal in the case of vegetables.

While rain was fairly widespread in the border districts, hailstones fell in about 20-odd villages of Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, including Fainpur, Abul Khan, Bharochak, Matan, Bariar, Kounta, Kharal, Ghulla and Gandhiana in areas around Gurdaspur town, besides Qila Tek Singh, Nawanpind, Mallianwal, Khan Phatta and a couple of other villages in the Batala sub-division. There were also reports of hailstorm in areas around Majitha and Ajnala.

However, the bright sunshine on Thursday came as relief to the farmers.

According to officials in the agriculture department in Amritsar, water-logging of wheat crop had been reported only in a few places at the block level. They added that this was unlikely to have an adverse affect on the quality of wheat crop.