Drought grips 18 Maharashtra districts, orange and cotton crops hit hard, Bawankule holds review

Maharashtra is facing the threat of drought, with poor rainfall causing heavy damage to crops. The state government has swung into action, holding repeated meetings and issuing directions to officials. Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule held a review meeting via video conference on Saturday with district collectors from the 18 affected districts.

In the meeting, all district collectors were strictly directed to immediately send detailed reports on crop damage and ground conditions in their respective districts, so that a final decision on relief measures could be taken at the upcoming cabinet meeting.

The meeting was attended by several senior officials, including Member of Parliament Maya Ewnate, MLAs Praveen Datke, Mohan Mate, Sameer Meghe and Charan Singh Thakur, Rajeev Potdar, police commissioner Vishwas Nangare Patil, district collector Kumar Ashirwad, municipal commissioner Vipin Itankar and rural superintendent of police Harsh Poddar.

The 18 districts said to be under the shadow of drought include Ahilyanagar, Solapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Dharashiv, Beed, Latur, Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, Washim, Akola, Amravati, Yavatmal, Wardha, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Nandurbar.

In Nagpur and Amravati districts, cloudy weather has increased fungal attacks on the orange crop, raising fears of major losses for farmers. Meanwhile, Dharashiv, Beed and Jalna districts are facing an acute shortage of fodder for livestock.

The situation with crops is also poor. In the Marathwada region, soybean, cotton, tur, turmeric, urad and moong crops have been affected, while in Vidarbha, cotton, moong, urad and tur crops have mainly suffered damage.

Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said a meeting was held with all district collectors on the day. He said the chief minister had directed that since rainfall has been low, a survey should be conducted to assess the damage, and it was for this that he held the meeting.

In Solapur district, a sharp decline in onion sowing is also expected this time.

On relief and rehabilitation, revenue minister Bawankule made clear that once reports are received from the district collectors, the matter will be discussed in detail with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He told officials that suggestions from local public representatives, meaning MPs and MLAs, should also be kept in mind, so that relief schemes are framed in a way that ensures farmers get timely financial and administrative help.