Farmers sprinkle water on highway to protect crops from dust

Poor condition of the Mumbai- Nagpur highway is keeping farmers in several villages along its 75-km strech in Aurangabad busy as they are forced to sprinkle water on the potholes-ridden road to stop the dust from settling on their crops and hampering their growth.

The farmers say that at many places, the condition of the highway is so miserable that entire asphalt layer has come off and exposed the inner layer of gravel and dust, thereby increasing their woes.

According to farmers, they have to sprinkle thousands of litres of water every week to keep the highway wet to stop the dust from forming a layer on the crops.

Talking to PTI, Dattatray Mete, a farmer from Dahegaon Bor village in the district said, "The stretch of highway between Aurangabad to Vaijapur is dotted with big craters. The condition has remained unchanged in the last two decades. The asphalt layer of the highway has come off completely at many places."