Marathwada has a history of drought of 150 years, said Bombay high court retired judge Narendra Chapalgaonkar.
Marathwada has a history of drought of 150 years, said Bombay high court retired judge Narendra Chapalgaonkar. While it has put successive governments — Congress, BJP and their allies — in the dock after Independence, the role of bureaucracy too remained questionable as people observed that the thrust remained on temporary measures than making sustained efforts to overcome drought, which is creating rifts in almost every district, not only in Marathwada, but even other parts of the state as well.
Justice Chapalgaonkar, who is also a writer, said the Nizam of Hyderabad had created a separate department to manage drought in the Marathwada region which was part of the Hyderabad state.
According to the reports of the Nizam government, the region had faced severe droughts in 1630, 1659, 1749 and 1787 which led to the death of number of people. But the severest drought the region experienced was that of 1899-1900.
This backward region in the developed Maharashtra has been known as “tankerwada”, where drinking water is supplied by tankers.
Although Justice Chapalgaonkar drew attention to several issues, including uncontrolled use of underground water, need to change the crop pattern, viability of sugar factories in drought-prone areas, neglect in water conservation, disilting reservoirs, dredging rivers, the real issue is why parties, bureaucracy and voluntary organisations have been avoiding addressing the real issues in drought-prone areas in Maharashtra.
Three leaders from Marathwada — S.B. Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan — got two terms as CM and Gopinath Munde remained the deputy CM for more than four years.
