Locust swarm enters Haryana, Govt. makes arrangements

Chandigarh, June 27 (HS) Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister,  JP Dalal visited the fields of village Bohatwas Bhondu and Parkhotampur in Jatusana block of the district Rewari at 7 am today and reviewed the steps taken to prevent locust attack on crops.

The Agriculture Minister assured the farmers that they do not need to panic as the State Government stands with them and the damage done to crops due to locust attack is being assessed by the administration.

Dalal said that since the locust had entered India from Pakistan about six months ago, the Haryana government had started advance preparations to deal with the locust attack. The locust first made their way to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and now have entered Haryana. He said that the State Government has made extensive arrangements to protect the crops of farmers.

Deputy Commissioner, Rewari,  Yashendra Singh apprised the Agriculture Minister that the locusts had entered district Rewari from district Mahendragarh at around 5 pm on Friday and stayed in the villages around Jatusana at night. All the preparations had already been done by the administration. Fire tenders, spray machines, mounted tractors were provided for spraying the medicine. A control room was set up to provide advance information to the farmers and munadi was also done in the villages. Experts were called from the Central Government and the Centre has also sent two spraying machines.

He also said that there has been a lot of relief due to advance preparations and spray has succeeded in killing about 30 to 35 percent locusts. The locust was spread over ten kilometers in length and six kilometers in width, he added.