Mumbai : Marathwada, the region reeling under drought, got some showers last week but the situation is still far from better. The rains have failed to raise the reservoir levels in the region.
Panic buttons were pressed two weeks back when it was revealed that the region had only 8% of water stock left in its reservoirs and in some districts it has almost hit the dead stock. After a short spell of rains last week, the situation was expected to be a bit better. But, the reservoir levels are still dismal. The rains last week added only 23 TMC to the reservoirs in the region, the official state government figures show.
In terms of rainfall, the region has received an average rainfall of 47.03% till now this year. Last year the percentage was well above 73% around the same time of the year. This means that the rains last week were of little significance keeping in mind the drought situation in the region.
The state cabinet of ministers discussed the drought situation at their meeting here on Wednesday. The cabinet was told that the state has received around 58% of average rainfall this year and the reservoirs hold around 49% of water.
The cabinet subcommittee on drought submitted its report on Wednesday. It is expected to be discussed and the recommendations might be accepted next week. The important recommendations include declaring all areas as “Drought affected” where the rainfall is less than 50%. Areas with and 75% or below rainfall would be called scarcity-hit instead of drought-like situation and scarcity-like situation respectively. This will help the state to get more funds for drought relief from the centre, the report said.
The panel report has also recommended that the proposal sent by the state to the centre for drought relief package be sent by mid October instead of December, which will ensure a timely relief to farmers.
Minister for revenue and relief and rehabilitation Eknath Khadse said that the recommendations in the report will help in expediting the drought relief measures and would include more farmers in the net. The financial implications of the recommendations could be to the tune of around Rs 300 crore, he said.
