-Reuters Millions of people in Maharashtra are at serious risk of hunger after two years of low rainfall, coupled with poor management of water resources, have left dams empty, farmland parched and cattle emaciated, aid agencies warned on Thursday. Maharashtra -- one of the country's biggest producers of sugar, pulses, cotton and soybeans -- is reeling from the worst drought in more than four decades after receiving less than 50 percent of...
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In Modi’s Gujarat, no Narmada water for dalits -Vijaysinh Parmar
-The Times of India CHITALIYA (RAJKOT): In the villages of Jasdan taluka in drought-hit Saurashtra, dalit women prefer to remain silent. That's for the fear of the upper castes in a state whose chief minister Narendra Modi is busy trying to conjure up an eclectic image to subserve his perceived prime ministerial ambitions for 2014 polls. "Those people (upper castes) will abuse us again if we speak," mumbled one of the women,...
More »Man-made drought
-The Business Standard Politics means sugarcane gets Maharashtra's scarce water The drought in a large part of Maharashtra, said to be the worst since 1972, may have been triggered by poor rainfall in the last monsoon season - but it has been compounded by mismanagement of the available water. Nearly one-third of the state's population living in the 15 drought-hit districts in and around the Marathwada region is facing a severe scarcity...
More »Tankers and the economy of thirst-P Sainath
-The Hindu The water markets of Marathwada are booming. In the town of Jalna alone, tanker owners transact between Rs.6 million and Rs.7.5 million in water sales each day Thirst is Marathwada's greatest crop this season. Forget sugarcane. Thirst, human and industrial, eclipses anything else. Those harvesting it reap tens of millions of rupees each day across the region. The van loads of dried-out cane you see on the roads could end...
More »Agriculture growth declined in Maharashtra: Economic Survey
-PTI MUMBAI: The annual economic survey, tabled in the Maharashtra Legislature today ahead of the presentation of State budget for 2013-14 tomorrow, reveals a decline in agriculture growth in the state. "The agriculture sector growth has declined by 1.4 per cent, the growth of agriculture and allied sectors has declined by 2.1 per cent. The industry sector is expected to grow at 7 per cent, while the services sector is expected to...
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