Chandigarh, April 9 -- Punjab Agricultural Minister Gurmeet Khudia on Thursday stated that untimely and excessive rainfall has severely impacted crops across more than 1.3 lakh acres in the state and called on the Central Government to provide urgent assistance.

Speaking to ANI, Khudia said, "The untimely and excessive rainfall has had a severe impact on Punjab's agriculture, damaging crops across more than 130,000 acres."

"For many days now, the weather has been very bad, just as the crops were about to reach maturity. Farmers toil for six months, hoping for a good harvest, but untimely rain and hailstorms have caused huge losses across Punjab," Khudia said, addressing the crisis.

The minister added that under Chief Minister Bhagwant ...