Drought is failure of policy,not rains.
Professor H.M.Desarda has summed up the water scarcity in Maharashtra in a few words :" Drought is failure of policy,not rains"(Daily News and Analysis,26/3/13). According to his findings, Maharashtra had 90% rainfall in 2012 which is a long-term average, only 17 out of 355 talukas received less than 300 mm rainfall, the state has 40% of the big dams in India, and still there is widespread scarcity of water in Maharashtra. Most of the water has been diverted to water intensive industries such as sugar mills, alcohol and petro-chemical industries. There was a documentary in a TV channel which showed how water is being pumped to sugar mills, owned by the ministers and MLAs, while the surrounding villages go with out water. Another report states that sugar cane is grown in 10 out of 25 lakh hactares of irrigated land in the state. Yet another report says that not even one percent increase in the irrigation facilities in the state in the last 10 years in spite of spending Rs.70,000 crore. No wonder villagers flock to the towns and cities, and one of them from Solapur tells a reporter that ' Life in Mumbai footpath is better than in our drought-hit village'. This is how the present government in Maharashtra helps amm admi.
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_drought-is-failure-of-policy-not-rains_1815739
April 1, 2013.
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