An Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) of officials visited Bidar on Tuesday to assess the damage caused by heavy rain and hailstorms and interact with affected farmers.
The team visited Anadur, Hallikhed, Kanakatta and Humnabad before leaving for Kalaburagi. They said three teams were touring parts of Karnataka and would submit a report to the Union Government soon.
Vithal Reddy, said he had suffered huge losses as mango trees on his four-acre farm had failed completely. Manik Bhadrappa, a farmer from Anadur, demanded the Union Government release a compensation of at least Rs. 50,000 per acre.
Caretakers of the Kudre farm in Anadur Wadi said their crop loss was nearly 95 per cent.
The IMCT team included Akhilesh Kamal, Director, National Project on Rinderpest Eradication, B.K. Mishra, Assistant Director, Finance, and Rakesh Bharadwaj, Under Secretary, Rural Development Ministry.
P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner, said preliminary estimates of crop loss by horticulture officials in the district was around Rs. 40 crore. Sharat. B, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer, G.T. Putra, Joint Director of Agriculture and others were present.
