Social activist Sanjay Lakhe-Patil on Thursday wrote to the Principal Secretary (Revenue and Forest Department) seeking details of the State government’s drought assessment report. Mr. Patil also filed a petition in the Bombay High Court pointing out that the State in a Government Resolution (GR) dated October 31, 2018, had declared severe drought in 112 talukas and moderate drought in 39 talukas. In a GR on November 6, 2018, the government declared 268 circles in the remaining 204 talukas as drought-affected.
Mr. Patil said the government should have listed the talukas facing drought in the rabi season before March 3, but it did so only after he moved the High Court. Mr. Patil alleged that the State declared only three talukas (two with severe drought and one with moderate drought) as facing rabi drought as it is trying to help crop insurance companies. He alleged that the State declared the talukas as drought-affected without taking into account rainfall data, satellite-based data on crop condition, soil moisture, crops sown area, surface water and groundwater levels collected at the district and taluka levels.
On June 6, Mr. Patil had sought the reports of the district- and taluka-level committees and statistical data collected by the State drought monitoring cells, the collectors, and tehsildars between October 2018 and April 2019. He also sought details of the drought assessment carried out as per a GR dated October 7, 2017. Mr. Patil has demanded information on the number of cattle camps (taluka-wise), date of opening of the cattle camps, names of NGOs, insurance premium paid by farmers (district-wise), names of companies awarded tenders to collect crop insurance premium, and the State’s contribution to crop insurance in the last financial year.
Mr. Patil has also sought the amount spent on providing midday meals in drought-affected areas during the summer holidays (April to May 2019) and the number of drought refugees in each village in the 151 drought-affected talukas.