Surat Farmers Lose 98 Hectares of Crops to Fires; Leader Flags Power Negligence

SURAT: For farmers who spend months nurturing their crops, watching sugarcane fields turn into ashes is a devastating blow. In Surat district, alleged power infrastructure negligence, a farmer’s...

Darshan Naik, general secretary of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee and a farmer leader, has submitted separate representations to the Surat District Superintendent of Police and DGVCL’s managing director, seeking accountability, compensation and urgent repairs to ageing electricity infrastructure.

According to the representations, sugarcane crops spread across approximately 98 hectares in the Kamrej, Chalthan and Sayan sugar mill areas have been destroyed by fires, causing losses worth lakhs of rupees to farmers.

The representation states that sugarcane belonging to 12 farmer-members across around 21 hectares in the Kamrej sugar mill area was burnt this year. In the Chalthan area, crops across approximately five hectares were destroyed last year, followed by another 40 hectares this year, affecting 10 farmer-members. In the Sayan area, around 32 hectares belonging to approximately 15 farmer-members were also affected.

Naik alleged that repeated appeals had failed to prevent such incidents, even before the current sugarcane harvesting season began.