Punjab suffered a total financial loss of over Rs 104.30 crore in the recent floods that wreaked havoc on crops, property and human lives.

According to a report compiled by the state revenue department, crops on about 2.08 lakh acres of land were affected in the floods that killed 32 people and cut off 1,931 villages.

More than 100 acres of farmland along the Sutlej river submerged after heavy rainfall in Ferozepur area on Wednesday.

The absence of any systematic study by Indian or foreign scientists has left sufficient room for wide and wild speculation on the probable causes of high incidence of cancer in parts of Punjab

The scourge of Malwa

Ferozepur, June 16
The residents of the border district, who have witnessed destruction and uprooting time and again due to flooding of the Sutlej and Indo-Pak wars, face a challenge to their lives once again and this time it is from chemically infested vegetables.

Consumption of such vegetables, which are being grown in various parts of the district, has made the residents

Ferozepur: Along with waters, the Satluj is bringing in bad news from Pakistan for those living near its banks in the district. Tanneries situated in and around the border towns of Kasur, Barki and Sehjra are polluting the water making it not only unfit for drinking and irrigational purposes, but also leading to immense loss of aquatic life.

Kharar, June 13
Chandigarh Group of Colleges has undertaken an initiative to study effect of polluted water in the villages of Ferozepur district situated on Sutlej-Beas confluence.

For this, water samples from the confluence as well as hand pumps of Rasulpur village of Makhu block in Ferozepur district have already been taken. Rasulpur village lies about 5-7 km from the Harike barrage.

An irrigation round in the last week of March could have saved the wheat crop from wilting. But around mid-March, when day and night time temperatures spiked, the state had no power to irrigate the fields and there was no water in canals either. As a result, experts do not think wheat production will cross the 98 lakh tonne-mark this year. Last year, production was 111 lakh tonnes.

Due to reduced yield, harvesting season in Ferozepur has shrunk to just 12 days from standard 30 days. This was revealed by Ferozepur DC Kamal Kishore Yadav while taking stock of the procurement in the grain markets. In the next five days, the grain markets in the entire district will be clear of the wheat stock, the DC said.

Ludhiana: Punjab Agricultural University has decided to take back PAU 201 paddy seed and replace it with PR-120 or PR-111, the other varities recommended by university experts.

Taking the initiative in favour of the farming community, PAU officials today called upon the interested farmers to get a replacement of paddy seed PAU-201 at the earliest.

Sarpanches and panches in four districts of Ferozepur district are part of a new pilot project launched by the district administration. They are being trained in a technology that deals with pollution caused by burning of paddy straw

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