Situation worse than 1972 drought: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has written a four-page letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the drought issue on Wednesday. In the letter, Mr Pawar wrote that Satara, Solapur, Beed and Ahmednagar, along with the rest of the state, would witness a severer catastrophe than the drought of 1972.

Mr Pawar also sought a meeting with Mr Fadnavis, and the two met on Wednesday night. A delegation led by Mr Pawar, which includes his nephew Ajit Pawar and leaders Rana Jagjit Singh Patil and Rajesh Tope, met the chief minister.

Meanwhile, the state government has increased its allotment of cash to cattle camps for big and small cattle to Rs 10 and Rs 5 per animal respectively. It means that the state will give Rs 100 to big cattle while small cattle will be given Rs 50 each. The decision was taken in a meeting by the sub-committee headed by relief and rehabilitation minister Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday.

According to Mr Pawar’s letter, Rs 90 was not enough for cattle and at least Rs 119 should be allotted to each cattle.

Mentioning what he had witnessed in drought-affected areas, the Maratha strongman wrote, “Drinking water is being not supplied to Bijwadi, Shindi Khurd, Vavarhire, Bhalwadi and Panwal among other villages as per the needs of the population. The frequency of tankers was inadequate. There were complaints of contaminated water.”

Mr Patil said that the state has delegated the collector’s powers to the tehsildar for sanctioning the dispatch of water tankers within 24 hours wherever it is needed.

Mr Pawar also said that yellow ration cardholders were not being provided grain.

This, despite the Centre making it compulsory to the state government provide grain to each citizen under the Food Security Act.

After casting his vote on April 29, Mr Pawar had kicked off a visit to drought-affected areas such as Solapur, Satara, Beed, Osmanabad and Ahmednagar districts. The former chief minister went to farmlands and cattle camps. Later, the chief minister said that the state government had already taken many decisions such as granting Rs 100 to fodder camps for individual lifestock and supplying tankers based on the population of villages in 2018, among others.