Water crisis...

“The situation is serious, but we can tap into the dead water storage of the dams. For now, we can manage water supply by putting in place proper measures. That means priority in distribution will have to be first for drinking, then agriculture, followed by industry,” said Pankaja Munde, state’s rural development minister and guardian minister for Beed.

Dead storage refers to water below the level of the sluice gates, it can be pumped out for water distribution, but generally this is to be used only for drinking purposes.

Purushottam Bhapkar, divisional commissioner for Aurangabad, in-charge of all the eight districts in the region, said, “We are preparing a plan for water scarce areas across the division by looking at alternate water sources, schemes that can be tapped into to distribute the water. The situation in four out of the eight districts – Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed and Osmanabad districts – is more severe.”

Beyond big dams and irrigation projects, in 1,411 villages in the region, ground water table has depleted by more than 3 metres; and in 4572 villages, ground water has depleted by more than one meter. This was revealed in a survey by the state’s Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) in its September report. The agency compared ground water level in pre-identified observation wells with average water level in five years.

“The state’s faulty water management is leading to scarcity beyond natural reasons like less rainfall. This year, sugarcane cultivation area had increased exponentially and this guzzled up water in a water scarce region,” said Pradeep Purandare, water expert and former associate professor at the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI). “While big dams have been problematic because of flawed planning and design, the state’s Jalyukt Shivar scheme that focuses on creating water conservation structures has also not showed adequate results. While structures to trap water have been built, they have often been built ignoring basic hydrology and conservation principles,” Purandare said.

Municipal corporation councillor Vijay Madan and her son Sourabh Madan Mithu, the main organisers of the Dussehra celebration, went underground with other family members, according to the news agency Press Trust of India.

Lohani said an inquiry by the office of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), which works under the civil aviation ministry, was not required as “it was a case of trespassing”. CRS conductsmandatoryinquiries into all railway accidents at unmanned level crossings and due to derailments or bridge collapses.

A section of leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal and ally Bharatiya Janata Party said the tragedy could have been avoided if chief guest Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the wife of state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, had arrived on time at the Dusshera festivities. “It is a tragedy...we should not politicise the issue,” said Amritsar East legislator Sidhu, defending his wife.

Amritsar sub-divisional magistrate Rajesh Sharma confirmed 61 deaths and added that 40 bodies had been identified. “Around 20 bodies have been kept at Amritsar civil hospital and Guru Nanak Dev hospital’s mortuary houses for identification,” he added. Many of the victims were migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Government railway police (GRP) registered a case of culpable homicide and causing death by negligence against unidentified persons on a complaint by a local police officer.

In the tragedy-struck city, some family members of those killed searched frantically for the dismembered body parts of their loved ones. Such was the impact of the train smashing into the crowd that people were flung into the air and body parts were severed and scattered on the tracks.

Others performed the last rites of their relatives. Weeping inconsolably, many fainted at the cremation grounds when the funeral pyres were lit.

At 3am on the night of the tragedy, 50-year-old Vijay Kumar received on Whatsapp a photo of his 19-year-old son Manish’s severed head. Since then, the family has been searching for his body. Pawan Malhotra, who had moved away from the tracks to attend a phone call when the accident took place, said, “With my bare hands, I gathered the severed limbs of the people who were run over by the train.”

(With inputs from Faizan Haider in Delhi) RAJASTHAN, MP

“One prerequisite of the price deficiency scheme is that registration of farmers should be done at the time of sowing. The guidelines were issued only this month. So effectively that choice can be exercised only next year. Our target now is to procure 25% of the surplus coming to market,” Neel Kamal Darbari, the additional chief secretary (agri-