Leaders embark on ‘drought tours’ as water crisis deepens

With early summer knocking at the door and the drought situation in the state likely to aggravate, leaders across political parties are embarking on tours of the 11 drought-hit districts. February has already given out signals of an imending war between ruling and opposition parties in the summer months, even as the water crisis worsened in the state with reports that drinking water supply through tankers has come down to once in 15 days in many areas.

The Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation headed by Congress leader Patangrao Kadam has painted a grim picture, saying that the situation has turned critical, with nearly 650 villages struggling to meet the daily requirement of drinking water.

Leading the race to convert the districts affected by the worst drought in decades into a political battleground are Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his estranged cousin, MNS chief Raj Thackeray. BJP leaders, Beed MP and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse and leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde are also readying to tour the state.

Giving them company are Republican Party of India (RPI) president Ramdas Athavale and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh chief Prakash Ambedkar.

Although Tawde said the Opposition parties would play a "constructive role" by providing relief to people, he himself set another tone that could rule the tours by saying there was a bias in distribution of the relief and rehabilitation machinery.

The ruling dispensation would be looking to step up relief measures and neutralise any opposition efforts to raise a political storm over the drought. The task is not going to be easy, and as Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan himself admits, the next three months would be a litmus test for the government in Maharashtra.

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