Maharashtra ministers spend Diwali in drought-hit farm homes as dams stand at 65.79%

Four Maharashtra ministers spent Diwali on Sunday in the homes of drought-hit farmers across four districts, answering an appeal from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to celebrate the festival with people facing hardship. The visits came on the day the State Water Resources Department reported that dam storage had fallen to 65.79% of live capacity.

Ministers in the villages

Shivendraraje Bhosale, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Uday Samant and Ganesh Naik visited farm families in Solapur, Ahilyanagar, Nanded and Thane districts. They shared festive meals with the families and asked about their difficulties after a year of failed rains. The state has not said how many homes the four ministers called on.

Fadnavis himself spent the day in Lohari Sawanga village in Nagpur district, where he took part in a prayer meeting based on the teachings of Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj and met local representatives. He told farmers that permission would be given to drill borewells wherever possible amid the drought. Our report on his visit has the details of what he announced there.

Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde marked the day at his Mumbai residence with persons with disabilities. He pointed to welfare schemes, including assistive devices for more than 1,500 beneficiaries in Thane.

What the dams show

The Water Resources Department’s report for November 8 covers 3,042 major, medium and minor irrigation projects. They hold 26,979 million cubic metres, or 65.79% of total live capacity. On the same date last year the figure was 90.67%, a fall of nearly 25 percentage points.

Storage is lower than last year in every category of project. Major projects stand at 73.16%, against 97.09% a year ago. Medium projects hold 58.43% and minor projects only 38.02%.

The regional spread is wide. Konkan is the fullest at 83.34%, followed by Pune at 76.32% and Nashik at 75.56%. Nagpur division holds 57.99% and Amravati 53.97%. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division, which covers much of Marathwada, is the lowest at 38.39%.

How the relief has moved

The state declared drought in 265 talukas in September after a rainfall deficit, then added 40 more, taking the count to 305 of 358 talukas. On October 14, Fadnavis announced an advance of ₹5,000 for farmers in the affected talukas before Diwali, along with the standard drought concessions: loan restructuring, land revenue relief, electricity bill subsidies, free power for agricultural pumps up to 7.5 HP, a ban on coercive loan recovery and GPS-tracked water tankers in October and November.

By November 5, the state had paid ₹4,372.83 crore to 87,45,669 farmers in 304 talukas, according to Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Makarand Jadhav Patil, who gave the update on Friday. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division accounted for the most, with 33.36 lakh farmers and ₹1,668.18 crore, followed by Nashik with 18.07 lakh farmers. Ahilyanagar, with 8.07 lakh farmers and ₹403.64 crore, was the biggest single district, ahead of Beed, Solapur and Nanded. Jadhav Patil said farmers whose payments had stalled over bank account or other technical problems would be paid once the discrepancies were fixed.

Why it matters

The low reservoirs are what the ₹5,000 cannot fix. With minor projects at 38.02% and Marathwada’s division at 38.39%, water for the rabi crop and for drinking is the pressing question in the districts the ministers visited. The government has promised tankers and fodder purchases at the minimum support price, and Fadnavis has signalled that borewell permissions will be eased.

What next

The balance of the Diwali advance is due to farmers whose payments were held up by technical issues, and the Water Resources Department publishes its storage figures regularly, so the next readings will show how fast the reservoirs fall through the dry months. The state said earlier that drought declarations would normally come at the end of November, with aid from December, but it moved the notification forward to October because of the severity of the shortfall.