Wheat gutted in fire in Punjab

Wheat crop, spread over about 30 acres of land, was gutted in fire in two different incidents in Sangrur and Patiala districts, police said today.
The first incident occurred today when wheat fields spread over eight acres of land was burnt by a spark from an overhead high tension power transmission line at Cheema village on Shahpur road in Sangrur district," Sangrur Police Inspector Rajwant Singh said.
The flames were doused by farmers using water tankers. However, the fire managed to spread to adjoining fields due to high velocity wind, police said.
The crop fields belonged to Darshan Singh, Jarnail Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Bhura Singh, they said.

In another incident, about 22 acres of agricultural land with wheat crop was gutted yesterday due to a short circuit in a nearby electricity transformer in Mehmadpar village in Patiala district.
Farmers who faced 100 per cent crop loss demanded compensation for the damage as wheat crops procurement has already started in the ongoing Rabi marketing season.
Meanwhile, state-owned power utility Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), in an advertisement published in newspapers, has advised farmers not to stack harvested wheat crop near transformers or under electric wires.