Moderate to heavy rain lashed many parts of Punjab and Haryana in past 24 hours, dashing the hopes of farmers as wet weather was likely to hamper wheat harvesting in the two agrarian States.
Rain lashed since Wednesday evening and continued to pour even on Thursday at some places including Chandigarh, where wet weather prevailed in the morning.
Unseasonal rain, which had lashed the two States for most of the March, have continued in April as well with latest spell accompanied by strong winds at some places coming as a blow for the peasants whose crops had already suffered damage owing to earlier spells.
A MeT official said the latest spell was caused due to a western disturbance which was active over north Pakistan and adjoining region in Jammu and Kashmir. An upper air cyclonic circulation over Punjab and neighbourhood also brought about the change in weather in the northern States on Wednesday. Reports reaching here said that at some places in the two States strong winds with rain had caused damage to the standing crops.
“The rain has adversely affected the standing crop and grains that had arrived for procurement in the markets,” Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said .
“There are also reports that rain has caused damage to the wheat crop at some places including the one which was lying in Nabha Mandi in Punjab,” he said. According to the MeT here, while the weather would remain mainly dry on April 17 and 18, another Western Disturbance would be active over the region on April 19.
