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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Caught up in polls is a drought forgotten -Sayantan Bera

Caught up in polls is a drought forgotten -Sayantan Bera

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published Published on Apr 16, 2019   modified Modified on Apr 16, 2019
-Livemint.com

* Over 40% of India is in the grip of abnormally dry conditions. Will the elections bring any relief?

* The situation in Maharashtra is approaching the 2016-like crisis, when consecutive years of drought forced the state government to supply drinking water to Latur by train

NEW DELHI:
Between November of last year when Sharad Markad opened a cattle relief camp in drought-hit Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra and now, the price of a 5,000-litre water tanker has gone up from Rs.700 to Rs.1,000. In these six months, the number of cattle in the camp swelled from 200 to over 500. For 19-year-old Markad and his fellow villagers, it is now a daily challenge to feed the cattle and keep the camp running. The water and fodder cost a staggering Rs.25,000 per day. The annual south-west monsoon is at least two months away. And, the local administration is busy with the general elections.

“Every day, two water tankers come to our village to supply drinking water but that is barely enough. My family buys at least one tanker a week for drinking and other household needs," says Markad.

Ahmednagar is among the 26 districts in the state which have been hit by a drought that is ravaging parts of India. After the June to September south-west monsoon recorded a deficit of 9.4% compared to 50-year average, eight states, including Maharashtra, declared a drought. Since the end of the monsoon, the situation has only worsened. According to the drought early warning system at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, as on 6 April, 41% of India’s landmass is experiencing “abnormally dry" conditions.

The affected regions span across at least 13 states—parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal. For the drought-hit in these regions, the elections could not have come at a worse time.

“We are getting water supply once in 15 days; farmers have resorted to distress sale of cattle; crops like cotton and soybean have failed... yet local officials are unwilling to take note of our grievances using the election (model) code of conduct as an excuse," said Manik Kadam, a farmer from Maharashtra’s Parbhani and member of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, the largest farmer organization in the state.

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Livemint.com, 15 April, 2019, https://www.livemint.com/industry/agriculture/caught-up-in-polls-a-drought-forgotten-1555260988957.html


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