Parts of Maharashtra facing water scarcity, warns Pawar

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who recently toured some drought-affected parts of Maharashtra, said on Saturday the situation in some districts was serious due to the scarcity of water.

"The situation in districts such as Dhule, Nashik, Pune, Beed, Osmanabad, Solapur, Satara and Sangli is serious," he said. The NCP chief also said that a central team is scheduled to visit the drought-affected areas of the state soon.

"During my visit to Sangola in Solapur district, I saw the water and fodder availability was poor. In some areas, even sowing operations could not start due to the water scarcity. The government has asked officials to undertake various drives in these areas, including supplying water through tankers, setting up fodder camps and carrying out work under the employment guarantee scheme."

Pawar said he had sleepless night when wheat had to be imported. "But now the foodgrain production front has improved in the country and there is an adequate stock to last for next two years," he said.

The government has also exported 20 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice besides cotton and sugar, he added. The NCP chief, who inaugurated a conference of sarpanchs (village heads) here today, also lauded the contribution of the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Bihar in improving the rice production.

Addressing a gathering of 1,500 sarpanchs, he urged them to approach the government heads and take proper information of various schemes of the Centre and adopt modern technology. He asked farmers to turn towards horticulture, dairy products and fishing to earn more instead of remaining with traditional agriculture ways. Pawar also stressed the need for having proper water distribution system and urged farmers to switch over to modern technology. "Some states like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have succeeded in fisheries and they are now exporting fish. Then why can't Maharashtra's Konkan region do this?," he asked. He also urged the sarpanchs, attending the two-day meet from all over Maharashtra to take benefit of government's schemes as in the 110-crore populated country, as 56 per cent of them depend on agriculture.