PM to meet CMs of three drought-hit states

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka on Saturday for discussion on the drought and water scarcity in these states.

The invitation was extended the same day as UP’s Akhilesh Yadav rejected Centre’s offer for a water train for the Bundelkhand region. Yadav rejected the offer on the grounds that the water situation there was not as bad as in Maharashtra’s Latur, where such trains are plying, and instead demanded 10,000 water tankers for the region.

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“UP CM @yadavakhilesh requests GOI for 10,000 road tankers to distribute water in Bundelkhand from available water resources around the region (sic),” the CM’s office tweeted.

A 10-wagon water train reached Jhansi in south UP for transporting water to Bundelkhand, as a war of words intensified between the Samajwadi Party (which runs the government in UP) and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit over the need for providing water through trains to Bundelkhand.

The Centre also plans to move fodder on trains from surplus states with deficit.

“The wagons are ready to be filled with water from a nearby reservoir for dispatch to the destination as and when needed,” said Girish Kanchan, commercial officer at the Jhansi railway division.

“We do not have any requirement to bring water by train...We have made arrangements for providing water...Wherever tankers are required, an assessment has been made and tankers have been bought,” said state chief secretary Alok Ranjan.

On Saturday, according to news agency PTI, the PM is to meet the CMs separately. It has already been officially stated that at least 330 million people have been impacted by drought.

“The Centre’s role is to monitor and the state’s role is to provide assistance and help the affected people at ground level,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said in the Rajya Sabha on the subject. Opposition parties in the House had rapped the Centre’s handling of the situation and demanded loan waivers for farmers and supply of free seed and fertiliser during the coming kharif season.

Initiating the discussion, Jagdambika Pal (BJP) made a strong pitch for inter-linking of rivers, adding that providing relief cannot be a permanent solution.