After 3 decades, water tankers in Hazare's village!

Anna Hazare's village Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district, which gained prominence for its water conservation and watershed projects, is now affected by drought and is serviced by three water tankers. "Three tankers are supplying water to the village since last one month. The last time the village saw water tankers was around three decades ago, before Anna implemented watershed projects in and around the village," an aide of the social activist said.

Ralegan Siddhi is depending on water tankers as its water resources have dried up leaving Hazare, who pioneered watershed projects at this nondescript village in the parched region of Ahmednagar, worried. "Villagers have used bore-wells to use the conserved groundwater. The village has as many as 300 borewells and we have now decided to banish them from the village map. The process to fill up 110 bore-wells that are deeper than 200 ft with cement concrete has already started," he said.

DROUGHT TOUR Meanwhile, senior state Congress leaders will tour the drought-affected areas in Marathwada from May 5 to 7, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan said here today. "Our leaders will tour these areas and bring to the government's notice shortcoming in the relief measures," Chavan said here.

The leaders, including Ashok Chavan and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, will interact with the affected people, he said.

A meeting of the state cabinet had been held in the past in Latur, which is among the most drought-affected districts, Chavan said. "We will check if the relief measures announced at the meeting have been implemented. "As many as 3,224 farmers committed suicide in the state in 2015. Even the courts took cognisance of the gravity of the problem. However, the BJP-led government did not bother to take any action to stop suicides," Chavan said.

The MPCC chief also criticised the BJP-led government for "being afraid of a student leader like Kanhaiya Kumar".