More than 5,000 bags of wheat were gutted in a barn at Patra Khurd village in Palamu on Tuesday. The barn was full of wheat where 26 farmers had kept their wheat bags for the facility of the blower equipment. The barn caught fire, which soon took a devastating shape and gutted the wheat.
Madan Paswan a member of the Palamu zila parishad has confirmed the incident at the barn at Patra Khurd. He said the 26 farmers had gathered their wheat bags for equipment there and it proved a terrible loss to them. The zila parishad member said the incident has been reported to the SDO, BDO and Hussainabad police. The wheat bags were uninsured. In Palamu, farmers hardly spend on insurance cover of their crops. The fire also reduced one house to ashes of a Sao family.
All the 26 farmers belong to Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Caste. The loss of more than 5,000 bags of wheat has come as a rude shock to them who are already reeling under food scarcity this time in the wake of scanty rainfall. Sources said the unseasonal rain too had dampened the hopes of the farmers and now this devastating fire has rendered them helpless. Except for open space there is no facility for storage of raw food grains/crop in Palamu and as such it is exposed to vagaries of nature.