Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is upset that despite providing 40 lakh litre water to Latur through train wagons, there are still an additional 260 tankers supplying water to the drought-hit region. So much so, he has asked the district collector to explain the situation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting in Delhi on Saturday to take stock of the drought scenario.
The CM on Thursday was reviewing water scarcity in the state through video conferencing when it came to light that Latur is still getting water from 260 tankers over and above water-filled railway wagons being sent to the district. The CM was also informed that water needs to be distributed every day as the city does not have any storage capacity, said an official who attended the meeting. The CM has now sought an explanation from the Latur collector.
Additionally, data made available by the Water Supply department revealed that out of the 260 tankers, 245 are private and only 15 are government-owned. In fact, the Relief and Rehabilitation department could not even provide exact data on how many wells and bore-wells have been acquired by the government in lieu of severe water shortage. An official from the Relief and Rehabilitation department said that data is not available however the collector has the right to take natural resources in his possession, considering human interest.
In the rest of Marathwada, Aurangabad has been supplied water through 712 tankers, Jalna 455 tankers, Beed 838 tankers, and Osmanabad 373 tankers.
Only three per cent water remains in Marathwada’s reservoirs. Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Ahmednagar have cattle sheds too. In Marathwada alone, while 1.11 lakh works are available under employment guarantee scheme, only 9,104 works are on. Overall in the state, 35,002 works are on. The entire state has 17 per cent water storage left whereas at the same time last year, water storage left was 29 per cent. In all, 4,640 tankers are supplying water to 3,587 villages and 5,993 hamlets.
CMO officials said that the entire data would be presented before the PM on Saturday. It is also likely that the state might seek another package from the Centre for drought relief, considering the severe water crunch and crop loss, they added.
