Ahmedabad, May 7 (PTI) Unseasonal rains continued to lash several parts of Gujarat for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, causing damage to crops but providing respite to people from the scorching summer heat.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast more downpour over the next few days.
Rains were witnessed at most places in Gujarat for the second consecutive day, with districts like Anand, Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Kheda recording 50 mm to 100 mm of rainfall in eight hours since 6 am on Wednesday, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.
On Tuesday, Bhavnagar district was especially battered by very heavy rains, while isolated places in Anand district recorded heavy rains, the IMD said.
It caused damage to crops like mango and stored yield such as millet, sorghum, corn, moong, thereby incurring losses to farmers.
But the downpour also brought down the day's temperatures and provided relief to people from sweltering heat.
Due to the rains, the maximum temperature in Ahmedabad dropped to 30 degrees Celsius. Several other parts of the state also witnessed a drop in temperature.
The IMD said it sees no large change in maximum temperature in the next four to five days over the region.
The IMD forecast heavy rains at isolated places in Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Anand, Mahisagar, Bharuch, Valsad, Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Rajkot, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Gir-Somnath and in Diu on Thursday.
The Gujarat Congress targeted the BJP government over casualties and damage to property caused due to rains in the last two days, saying the government had prior knowledge but took no concrete steps to prevent damage.
"It is sad to see that the government did not make any advance preparations or warn people, due to which 14 people have died due to this storm and unseasonal rain," Congress leader Amit Chavda said in a statement.
"We request the state government to start its own crop insurance scheme or immediately set up a corpus fund and create a system so that farmers are promptly compensated for the amount of loss they suffer due to natural disaster," he said.