Prepared for future locust attack: Haryana Minister

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 28

Agriculture Minister JP Dalal has lauded the role of the Agriculture Department and Rewari administration to ward off the locust attack with the minimum damage to crops.

The attack has been averted as of now, but the threat of a fresh attack looms large.

“The state government is prepared to deal with any future locust attack,” he told The Tribune on Sunday.

‘Farmers will get relief’

The Rewari administration managed to eliminate 35 per cent of locusts which had entered Rewari around 5 pm on Friday and settled in villages around Jatusana at night. A special ‘girdwari’ will be ordered and affected farmers will be compensated. JP Dalal, Agriculture Minister

There was little damage at Hodal, where a swarm of less than one sq km settled on Saturday night. The swarm attacked 12 villages in Rewari district.

“The place where the swarm settled in Hodal was a jungle. So it could not cause any damage,” Dalal said, adding the Rewari administration would conduct a survey to assess the crop damage.

The minister said the administration managed to eliminate 35 per cent of locusts which had entered Rewari around 5 pm on Friday and settled in villages around Jatusana at night. “We were apprehending that the swarm would move towards Rohtak and Sonepat but, due to the change in the wind direction, they moved towards Gurugram, Delhi and then towards Uttar Pradesh.”

Dalal, who visited the affected villages on Saturday, said the district administration had been directed to send a report with a preliminary estimate of the damage. “A special ‘girdwari’ will be ordered and affected farmers will be compensated.”

On the Congress’ allegation that the state government had failed to prevent the locust attack in spite of being aware of it, Dalal said it was because of the preparations made by the government in advance that 35 per cent of locusts were killed during a night-long operation by the Rewari administration.

He added that even experts from the Centre, who visited Rewari to take stock of the situation, praised Haryana for taking a timely action.

Surender Dahiya, Additional Director (Agriculture), said an awareness campaign in the past few months, sufficient stocking of pesticides, and timely action by the Rewari and Palwal administrations and the Centre prevented large-scale damage.