25,000 villages hit by drought in Maha: Fadnavis tells House

Nearly 25,000 villages in Maharashtra are in the grip of a severe drought and the state government is taking all possible measures to tackle the situation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today told the state Assembly here.
Making a suo moto statement in the Legislative Assembly on the drought-like situation, Fadnavis said that a central team visited about 14 scarcity-hit areas to assess the situation and appreciated the measures initiated by the state government.
Apart from 19,000-odd villages, 5600 villages are being added in the list prepared by the Central team during its two-day visit, Fadnavis informed the Assembly.
The state government was making arrangements to provide fodder and drinking water to these affected villages, he said.

"The situation is quite serious," Fadnavis said, adding the government is making available food grains on subsided rates for affected families.
Earlier, he presided over a high-level meeting attended by Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya, Additional Chief Secretary Sudhir Kumar Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), Sudhir Shrivastava, Rehabilitation Secretary Govindrajan, Water Conservation Secretary Malini Shankar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Deepak Kapoor, Divisional Commissioner Anup Kumar, Chief Minister's Principal Secretary Milind Mhaskar and CM's Secretary Pravin Darade and District Collectors of respective affected districts, a release from the CMO said.