Farmers in various parts of Thanjavur district especially in several villages in Thanjavur, Orathanadu and Pattukottai taluks showed the standing samba paddy crops that were damaged due to heavy inundation in the recent heavy rains to the Central team that visited various parts of the district on Sunday to assess the extent of damage caused to the agricultural crops, roads, culverts, houses and other structures by the November rains.
The Thanjavur district administration had put the total loss caused by the heavy rains to the roads, houses and other structures at Rs.129 crore. Besides, the rains had caused havoc and damaged the paddy crops in about 27,695 hectares and horticultural crops in about one hundred hectares.
The Central team led by L.Viswanathan, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs along with its member A.Muralidharan, Senior Research Officer of the Union Planning Commission, being shown the damages through a power-point presentation by Collector M.S.Shanmugam here in the morning in the presence of V.K.Subburaj, State Health Secretary and other senior officials.
The Collector said that about 7,800 houses mostly huts, were partially and fully damaged in the rains in the district and pointed out that the about 500-km length of highway roads were badly affected. He said that the paddy crops in several parts of the district were damaged due to heavy inundation because of the continuous rains for 10 days.
Mr Shanmugam said that Thanjavur district had received more than 400 mm rainfall against the normal rainfall of 208 mm in November and pointed out that in a single day on November 28, Thanjavur alone had recorded 311 mm of rainfall causing havoc.
Farmers associations, who presented petitions to the Central team at the venue, urged the Central team to take steps for announcing the district as flood-affected and to recommend substantial compensation to the farmers and also to the people who lost their cattle and other properties in the rains. Some farmers also brought damaged paddy crops and showed it to the team members.
The Central team along with State Health Secretary V.K.Subburaj, Collector M.S.Shanmugam, first visited Shenbagapuram village near Saliyamangalam and saw the culvert damaged due to a major breach and then saw the affected paddy crops in the fields at Vadapathi, Periyakottai, Tirumangalakottai, Kulamangalam in Orathanadu taluk. In the afternoon, the team toured extensively in Pattukottai and Madukkur blocks and saw the damages to the agricultural crops, houses, culverts and roads. Farmers at several villages showed the damaged paddy crops by plucking it from the submerged paddy fields. The Central team assured the farmers that they took note of the extent of damage caused by the rains and would take steps for quick relief to them.
Submission of report
The leader of the Central team L.Viswanathan and team member A.Muralidharan told The Hindu that they would submit the team’s report to the Centre at the earliest. They said that they would also discuss in detail about the damages caused by the rains with the State Government officials in Chennai on Monday before submitting their report to the Centre.
