The Maharashtra government on Thursday declared drought in over 29,000 villages of the state, most of them in parched Marathwada and Vidarbha regions where the grim situation was earlier described as
The Maharashtra government on Thursday declared drought in over 29,000 villages of the state, most of them in parched Marathwada and Vidarbha regions where the grim situation was earlier described as “drought-like.” The state government, in accordance with its assurance to the Bombay high court, issued a corrigendum clarifying that wherever reference is made to a “drought-like” situation, it would be read as “drought.”
“The state government has already taken drought relief measures in villages where the anewari (proportion of failed crops) is below 50 paise in kharif and rabi season. Nevertheless, in the future, all instances of villages where the government has mentioned drought-like situation, those villages will henceforth be called drought hit,” a government resolution issued here stated.
Opposition Congress and the NCP, however, said that the Fadnavis government was not serious in addressing the situation and that the belated move was only aimed at avoiding judicial action.
According to the information submitted by the state government in the Bombay high court, 29,000 villages in Maharashtra will now be considered drought hit and all relief measures prescribed in the Drought Manual, 2009 would be followed. 29,000 villages have already been declared drought in the state across 20-22 districts. This includes the entire Marathwada region, west Vidarbha, districts of Ahmednagar, Solapur and Sangli to an extent.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had recently sought increased funding for several Centre schemes in the state, said that the state government had chalked out a plan to tackle the drought situation in Marathwada and Vidarbha, which includes creation of a “guaranteed irrigation” plan over the next two-three years.
