Non-stop rain that has been lashing Raichur district in the last three days disrupted life on Wednesday and Thursday. Low-lying areas in the urban centres, particularly in the old areas of Raichur, including Sia Talab, Jalal Nagar and areas around the Government First Grade Degree College and Hashmia School, were flooded for hours.
With roadside drains getting blocked at various points and stinky drain water overflowing, roads in Raichur city, many of which were taken up for repair works, have turned into muddy puddles, disrupting traffic movement. The poorly-maintained wholesale vegetable market in the old city was literally filled with mud and garbage piles attracting stray pigs and cattle causing great inconvenience not only to farmers and vegetable traders but also to the general public in the surrounding area.
A government bus which was bound for Raichur from Bengaluru rammed a tree fallen on the road due to rain near Manvi in the early hours of Thursday. NEKRTC authorities said that nobody was injured in the incident.
Too late
The incessant rainfall did not bring smiles on the farmers either as it was too late. Rather, it threatened to damage pearl millet, red gram, onion, cotton and other standing crops on vast tracts of rain-fed areas in Lingsugur, Deodurg and Raichur taluks.
“Continued rain in this stage of cotton growth causes shedding of flowers and budding bolls. It will also lead to uncontrollable diseases which will be evident after a few weeks,” Amaranna, a farmer from Lingsugur taluk, told The Hindu .
There is a threat of the harvested onion crop getting rotten in many villages around Chandrabanda and Yeragera areas.
Rain made no difference to lakhs of farmers in the tail-end areas of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal. These farmers have been waiting for canal water for their paddy crops.
“After endlessly waiting for canal water in vain for standing paddy crop, many farmers, including me, have destroyed crops in the tail-end parts of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal. Rain in the Tungabhadra catchment area, which increases inflow in the Tungabhadra reservoir, would have helped us. This spell of rain has neither helped farmers in the Tungabhadra command area nor helped those in the rain-fed areas,” Chamarasa Malipatil, a farmer leader, said.
