Rains lash N India,25 dead; apple,cotton crop damaged

In Rajasthan,two people died in Dholpur due to rain and dust storms.

In Punjab’s Bathinda district,five deaths were caused by lightning on Saturday. A girl died due to lightning strike in Parasram Nagar.

In a wall collapse caused by inclement weather in the same locality,one Raja Ram died,and three others — Shivraj Singh of Bambeeha village,Kesho Rani of Aklia Kalan village and a child,Kuldeep,of Nehianwala — died due to lightning. In the state’s Muktsar district,lightning killed four persons,two each in Fatehpur Mania and Punjawa villages.

In neighbouring Haryana,two persons were killed in a high-velocity dust storm in Tajipur in Mahendergarh district. Several trees were uprooted and vehicular movement came to a standstill for a few hours in most parts of these states,officials said.

Heavy rains and storm damaged apple and vegetable crops in Mandi,Himachal Pradesh.

Nearly 735 acres of land was inundated in Bathinda district,Punjab,on Saturday due to breaches in seven distributaries,the district administration said. Bathinda Tehsildar Avtar Singh said Jhumba was the worst affected area with 290 acres coming under water due to breaches in Rai Ke feeder and Teona distributaries. Bathinda Chief Agriculture Officer Paramjit Singh Sandhu said hailstorm caused damage to the cotton crop sown during the last couple of days.

Saturday evening’s heavy storm followed by rainfall caused damage amounting to Rs 6.5 crore to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited. As many as 150 villages in the state faced power disruption.