Maharashtra is facing a severe drought while there are allegations of a massive scam in the execution of irrigation projects. The white paper on irrigation projects, brought out by the state government, glosses over a number of major concerns. Until there is a fundamental shift in state policy based on the willingness to look upon the right to water as being on par with the right to life, the state will continue to frequently face the spectre of drought.
PUNE: As many as 3,184 villages and 7,650 hamlets are facing severe water shortage in the state, according to the latest report generated by the state government.
About 3,793 tankers are currently supplying drinking water to these villages and hamlets periodically. Most of these villages and hamlets are from eastern part of western Maharashtra and Marathwada.
No animal, not even the snake, attracts more bad press than the leopard. The worst victim of poaching in India, it is also the biggest killer of people among all large carnivores.
For the last 12 years, nearly 5,000 farmers of Satgaon Pathar in Ambegaon taluka, about 60 km from Pune, have been engaged in cultivating the root vegetable.
Maharashtra is struggling to cope with one of the most severe drought crises in recent times, with many terming it worse than the historic drought of 1972.
Akole (Ahmednagar district)/Etapalli (Gadchiroli district): Until a few years ago, farm yields in the tribal areas of Akole tehsil in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district were very low and people foun
PUNE: Some 40 years ago, a child suffering from diarrhoea at Jamkhed village of Ahmednagar district would have had little chance of survival. Not anymore.
PUNE: Activist Anna Hazare catapulted into national stardom following his relentless pursuit of the Lokpal Bill, but the unassuming dhoti-clad social worker has been a star in his state, and village, for a long time now.
Fifty-year-old Maruti Auti recalls the days when villagers in Ahmednagar's Ralegan Siddhi, 80 km from Pune, lived in abject poverty over three decades ago.
