Power woes add to winter chill
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 12
A number of power cuts across the state during the day have added to the woes of people facing acute cold conditions in the state. First power cut was imposed at 7 am. That continued for about 30 to 40 minutes. The second power cut was imposed around 10 am and third in afternoon.

In a freezing cold weather, the life is made more miserable by the power cuts. Obviously, the PSEB is facing power shortage even in winters. Recently, it had announced a power supply schedule for the farm sector. However, sources said the farm sector did not need much power supply at this stage. Most of the area is covered under wheat in the state.

Though the cold has further tightened its grip over the region, the state government has not made any arrangement for the homeless people who sleep in open verandas. During the past few days, three persons died because of the cold. Reports of deaths owing to cold have also come from other parts of the state.

The government should have at least provided shelter to such people at some community places. Besides the government, the voluntary organisations have also not shown an enthusiasm this time to distribute warm clothes among poor homeless people. Neither Red Cross authorities have shown such inclination.

Meanwhile, agriculture officials said they were expecting rain in next two days. “There was a need to irrigate the crops with long roots. Thus, rain at this stage would prove useful,” said Balwinder Singh Sidhu, director, Agriculture, Punjab. He said the cloudy weather accompanied by extreme cold conditions had not caused any damage to the Rabi crops so far. He said, however, the persistence of such weather for a few more days would not be conducive for the Rabi crop.

With the prolonged cloudy weather conditions, the process of the photosynthesis among plants is affected. “Sunlight for a few hours in a day would be good for crops,” said Sidhu. “We hope the weather would open up in next few days,” he added. Cold conditions are considered for the wheat crop. But extreme cold weather is considered harmful for mustard crop. Low temperature is also good for fruits such as kinnow.