At least four general secretaries of the Maharashtra Congress are from the drought-hit Latur district, which has been facing an unprecedented scarcity of drinking water.
At least four general secretaries of the Maharashtra Congress are from the drought-hit Latur district, which has been facing an unprecedented scarcity of drinking water. The district, which got two chief ministers — the late Vilasao Deshmukh and Shivajrao Patil Nilangekar — has remained thirsty. Significantly, the entire Marathwada region has been known as a drought-prone area since Independence, but it did produce leaders like S.B. Chavan, Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde, former Union minister Shivraj Patil and current PCC chief Ashok Chavan.
Late S.B. Chavan and Mr Ashok Chavan, his son, (from Nanded district) were chief ministers for two terms while the late Gopinath Munde (Beed) was the deputy chief minister. Although the late Pramod Mahajan had won the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai, Mr Shivraj Patil had won the Lok Sabha elections from Latur seven times consecutively and before that he had represented Latur in the Assembly twice (in 1971 and ’78).
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who has recently approved names of Maharashtra PCC office-bearers, executive committee, spokespersons and an advisory council, made Amit Deshmukh (son of Vilasrao Deshmukh), Shailesh Patil (son of Shivraj Patil), Ashok Patil Nilangekar (son of Shivajrao Patil Nilangekar), Shivaji Patil Kavekar (all from Latur district) as PCC general secretaries. Besides, she has made party MP Rajni Patil and Keshavrao Autade (from Marathawada) as vice-presidents.
They are expected to camp in their respective districts, take up the issues of water supply, cattle camps and keep a close vigil on the government’s relief works till the arrival of the monsoon rains.
The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra is seen as urban and does not understand problems of the rural people and farmers. Barring Mumbai, the two ruling parties are not taking a keen interest in solving civic problems. For example, the people of Aurangabad, the divisional headquarters of Marathwada, have been getting drinking water only twice in a week for the last five to six years despite the Shiv Sena-BJP ruling the municipal corporation for over 25 years.
