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Everyone is aware of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/IPL-vs-PIL-With-an-alarming-rate-of-farmers-suicide-how-can-Maharashtra-grounds-have-water-for-IPL-pitches/articleshow/51700208.cms">severe drought conditions</a> in Maharashtra, because of which several matches of the ongoing IPL have also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Bombay-High-Court-says-no-IPL-matchesin-drought-hit-Maharashtra-after-April-30/articleshow/51812532.cms">shifted outside the state</a>. In these alarming conditions, the government has rationed water to the beer industry and is also keeping an eye on the use of water for sugarcane, known to take up a lot of water. 
 
A few weeks ago, the Maharashta state assembly also spent a considerable time talking about the sugar mills in Latur, one of the worse drought-affected regions, and if it was okay for the mills there to use water for crushing sugarcane. 
 
"Rather than the sugar mills, it is the sugarcane which probably uses more water. The mills nowadays use water in sugarcane for their operations, and sugarcane farmers should shift to drip irrigation. However, we cannot tell farmers not to cultivate sugarcane without making alternative crops such as pulses or soyabean equally remunerative for them," Latur-based Atul Deulgaonkar, who specialises in environmental studies, told ET. 
 
Sugarcane has been blamed for misusing water for a long time now, but now the beer industry in Aurangabad, housing famous brands like Foster's, Carlsberg and Heineken, has also come under the ministry’s prying eyes for its water use. 
 
The water supply to the beer industry has already been cut by 20% instead of the earlier 10% cut. However, a minister from the state's cabinet has told ET that the Maharashtra government had entered into agreements which would reserve water that is used for making beer. 
 
As of now, Aurangabad uses water from the dead pool of Jayakwadi, one of the largest <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/91-Key-reservoirs-in-India-have-less-than-a-quarter-of-their-full-capacities-left/articleshow/51825053.cms">reservoirs in India</a>, and irrigation officials are confident that the reservoir holds enough water for at least the next three months. 
 
On the other hand, locals employed in beer factories are also worried about their jobs in case the factories decide to shut down or shift from there. "People are not migrating from drought-hit villages because there's no water to drink, but because they do not have any work," said a farmer from Marathwada region, who did not wish to be identified. 
 
However, people of Maharashtra are more worried about the availability of drinking water than for industrial purpose, given the acute shortage of water in most regions of the state. 
 
<a href="https://shrigorde.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/dsc_2736-wt.jpg">Image source</a>

Maharashtra faces the tough challenge of using water either for drinking or for industries

Budget airline <keyword id="6358032" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SpiceJet">SpiceJet</keyword> is going to complete 11 years of its operations, an occasion the celebration of which would include supplying nearly 71,500 litres water to 11 draught-hit villages in the Latur district of Maharashtra, in partnership with an NGO called <keyword id="3378008" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AnybodyCanHelp">AnybodyCanHelp</keyword>. 
 
"At a time when the state is combating severe drought conditions, SpiceJet has stepped in to pledge help and relief to 11 villages in Latur, an initiative to commemorate its 11 years of flying," said an official statement from the airline. 
 
The airline and the NGO will collectively work so that nearly 71,500 litres of water can be supplied to these 11 villages of the Marathawada region per day. 
 
Water tankers for this cause will be assigned by SpiceJet, and will continue working for one month, from May 23 till June 23. 
 
<a href="http://www.prmoment.in/images/cms/spicejet3.jpg">Image source</a>

11 years of operations, 11 villages to be rescued; SpiceJet pledges to help draught-hit Maharashtra

The Indian state of Maharashtra is home to 11 major irrigation dams, which normally is enough for the state. However, because of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-Drought-Series-Maharashtras-drought-explained/articleshow/51927097.cms">severe drought </a>that the state is facing, 7 such dams have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Key-reservoirs-in-India-dont-have-enough-water/articleshow/51825053.cms">no water left</a> in them. 
 
These seven major irrigation dams that have faced the wrath of draught this year are Jayakwadi, Purna Siddheshwar, Majalgaon, Manjra, Lower Terna, Mannar and Sina Kolegaon, and are located in Aurangabad, Parbhani, Beed, Nanded and Osmanabad districts. 
 
The latest data has come from Water Resources Department for the week ending April 15th, and says that the<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Maharashtra-faces-the-tough-challenge-of-using-water-either-for-drinking-or-for-industries/articleshow/51892493.cms"> parched region of Marathwada</a> has only 3% of water stock available, counting all the 814 major, medium and minor irrigation projects. 
 
To fight the acute water scarcity that several parts of the state are facing, the department has deployed 4,356 tankers across Maharashtra that will supply drinking water to the dwellers. 
 
Other than this, a 50-wagon water train, called Jaldoot, has also reached Latur, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Bombay-High-Court-says-no-IPL-matchesin-drought-hit-Maharashtra-after-April-30/articleshow/51812532.cms">worst-hit area</a>. It carries 25 lakh litres of water, in addition to the 70 lakh litres that has already been delivered by train to Latur residents. 
 
<a href="https://s.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2015-03-23/6d9dd230-d117-11e4-a8a4-d76d47faa484_23drought.jpg">Image source</a>

Drought-hit Maharashtra dams have no water left for irrigation

The <keyword id="48485" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Bombay-high-court">Bombay High Court</keyword> has ordered the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BCCI&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BCCI</a> to shift matches of the ongoing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+Premier+League&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Indian Premier League</a> (IPL) out of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur in drought-hit Maharashtra after April 30. 
 However, it has acknowledged the contributions of Rs 5 Crores each from the <keyword id="13880" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mumbai-Indians">Mumbai Indians</keyword> and Rising Pune Supergiants franchises and 64 lakh litres of water from the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BCCI&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BCCI</a> to the city of Latur in the Marathwada region of the state. This means that 13 matches, including the final on May 29, cannot be held in Maharashtra. 
 
While Maharashtra continues to suffer from severe drought, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BCCI&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BCCI</a> told the Bombay High Court that shifting matches out of the state was not feasible. This was mainly due to concerns over financial <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> and the brand values of the defending IPL champions MI and new entrant RPS. 
 
However, the High Court has ruled that the matches cannot go ahead beyond the end of April. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BCCI&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BCCI</a> will now have to decide on alternate venues for the concerned matches from May 1. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

Bombay High Court says no IPL matches
in drought-hit Maharashtra after April 30

According to weather departments, the monsoon was below sufficiency this year and the grave consequences of low rainfall have already begun to show up. It is reported that drought like symptoms have started showing up in both rural and urban areas of the peninsular India. Maharashtra's Marathwada and western Maharashtra regions and north interior Karnataka, being the worst sufferers. 
 
While Kharif crop has already been affected, prospects of Rabi crop depend largely on rainfall in September. However, weather experts believe September rainfall will also be meagre. Authorities in Maharasthra having stored water in most dams for drinking purposes, chances are unlike that water will be diverted for irrigation purpose. 
 
Dams in the Pune region hold water up to just about half their capacity , compared with 82% at this time in 2014 and 87% in 2013. The Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to implement a 15% water cut and may restrict supply of drinking water to alternate days. 
 
Latur residents in Maharashtra are in grave distress as their plight of getting water, once in 8 or 15 days may worsen. Ujani dam, the lifeline of Solapur district, has zero live storage as against 72% at this time last year. Similarly, Jayakwadi dam in Aurangabad has just 5% live storage and the administration has made up its mind to use its dead stock, which is usually not exhausted, to meet drinking water requirements. As per the agriculture ministry, about 56% of the net cultivated area of the country is rain-fed, accounting for 44% of food production. 
Sugarcane farmers from drought-affected areas are selling cane as fodder instead of waiting for a few more months to sell it to sugar mills. They are getting Rs 2,800 to Rs 3,000 a tonne, compared to Rs 2,000 paid by most mills this year. Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse has indicated that the state government may not allow sugar mills from drought-affected areas to crush sugarcane in the October September sugar year. A sugar mill of 2,500 tonne per day crushing capacity requires 5 lakh litres of water every day . 
 
Sugar mill owners said since cane availability will be less, very few mills will be able to do crushing next season. 
However, a venture started to artificially curate rainfall didn’t yield much result. the artificial rain fall experiment being carried out in Marathwada region has not given much rainfall, even after about 80 flying hours. "There are not enough rain-bearing clouds coming to this region," said a senior official. 
 
In some districts of neighbouring Karnataka, rains were as much as 40% less than what is considered normal. Of the total 171 talukas in Karnataka, the state government has declared drought in 135, almost four times more than last year. 
 
Karnataka has asked for more than Rs 3,000 crore of central assistance, state officials said. According to officials of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, north interior Karnataka has most of the drought-affected areas.

Drought-like situation in Maharasthra and Karnataka. Blame it on low rainfall

The past few weeks seem to reflect the reality of the <keyword id="94534" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="indian-media">Indian media</keyword> and its relationship (if indeed there is one) with the Indian government and the broader public service it is expected to deliver. No, we are not talking about the one-page ads of government success stories though those too offer a sneak peek at the relationship between the two pillars of Indian democracy. We are talking more from the content/editorial side. These stories pertain to drought-like conditions in Marathwada, statements made by RBI governor and government reactions thereof and Press Freedom Index released two days ago which paints a not so good picture of press freedom in India, to put it mildly. 
 
The Latur district in Marathwada where the water crisis accentuated is a case in point. It was a disaster that was waiting to happen as drought-like conditions had existed for some time in the region. With Maharashtra receiving roughly 70 percent below normal rainfall in 2014 and approximately 60 percent below normal rainfall in 2015 compared to 12 and 14 percent for respective periods for the country, the signs were ominous. The fact is some print media did see it coming. A few media reports were published in 2015, but mainly the matter did not receive the attention it ought to have received considering the disastrous consequences. The situation worsened when Manjara Dam, which supplies to Latur city, got completely dry and had been so ever since Feb 25th. Latur also saw the imposition of section 144 of CRPC (now removed) relating to unlawful assemblies for preventing water-related riots, just one day before the World Water Day on March 21. The government has meanwhile supplied Jaldoot trains to the drought affected region which is an innovative strategy to deal with the situation. The crisis came to the forefront of news reporting with the Bombay High Court ruling that no Indian Premier League Cricket Matches should be held in Maharashtra as roughly 60,000 litres a day would be used for maintenance of pitches. It is interesting to note that post this a lot of articles /coverage has happened on the issue. But a broader question is what are the solutions so that another Latur like situation does not arise in the future? Few seem to be thinking about that aspect. Maybe this will happen with farmers and people becoming lesser dependent on monsoons alone for their livelihood. What are the governments and we as citizens doing about it? It is a question we must ponder over. 
 
The second issue which has been in news recently has been Raghuram Rajan and his remarks in US. The comments caused a butterfly effect and resulted in an ensuing political storm with ministers in the Central Government responding to the fact that they don’t agree with Rajan’s analogy of India being a one-eyed king in the land of the blind. Rajan further in a convocation address at the National Institute of Bank Management on April 20, 2016, put the title of his speech as ‘Words Matter but so Does Intent’. He clarified his position by stating that "Growth... is just one measure of performance, the level of per capita GDP is also important.” He also lamented the fact that in a ‘news-hungry country, however, our domestic papers headlined the phrase I used. To be fair, they also offered the surrounding context, but few read beyond the headline.’ So what does it tell about Indian media, not much but the fact that headlines can indeed be deceptive and can very often not end up portraying what the background context of comments was? Rajan was ‘not denigrating the success’ of India or its policymakers rather he was ‘emphasizing the need to do more’. 
 
The third issue is about the release of the Global Press Freedom Index in which Indian ranked a dismal 133. The 2016 ‘World Press Freedom Index’ was published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and was lead in country rankings by Finland, which retained its top spot for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Netherlands and Norway. India’s rank has improved three positions since 2015 from 136. India’s neighbours were also placed similarly with China being ranked 176th. The report also said that PM Narendra Modi seems to be “indifferent” to the threats against journalists. The report also shows a disturbing decline in respect for media freedom at both global and regional levels. 
 
Broadly speaking these three stories offer a look at the role that media plays and ought to be playing in the Indian democracy. It needs to improve further. The role ought to be more constructive and in the interests of various sections of the population, and the need is to go 'beyond headlines' to find the real intent of policymakers and policies. Over the next decade, media must regain its credibility by doing on the ground coverage of rural areas and noticing lapses so that India’s development reaches rural India where the majority of India still resides. 
 
(The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India. Amit Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness &amp; Editor of Thinkers. The views expressed are personal. Amit can be reached at <a href="mailto:amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in">amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in</a> and tweets @kautiliya) 
 
<a href="http://news24-d50.kxcdn.com/media/uploads/2015/05/25/news2-1-of-1.jpg">Image source</a>

The State of Indian Media

NAGPUR: The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday gave clearance to a proposal for setting up a disaster response force of its own on the lines of the <keyword id="119446" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="National-Disaster-Response-Force">National Disaster Response Force</keyword> (NDRF) set up by the <keyword id="6362177" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="union-government">Union government</keyword>. It also gave its nod for creating 428 posts for the proposed force. 
 
Every year floods, landslides, drought are annual features that affect 15 to 20 districts of the state, Last year, most of Vidarbha was hit by excessive rains, Latur in past was hit by earthquake. 
 
Instead of depending only on the NDRF's two units that are based in Talegaon Dabhade, the government feels the need to set up its own units for faster response. So two companies, each comprising three teams of 45 personnel each will be put in place. 
 The cabinet also decided to provide a financial grant of Rs221 crore to district central cooperative banks and primary cooperative agriculture credit societies in the state. While Rs131 crore will be given to DCCBs, farm credit societies will get Rs95 crore. Besides 31 DCCBs, there are 21,382 credit societies that work at village level. This capital infusion was necessitated to empower the cooperating farm <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> network on which nearly 70% of farmers depend. The cooperative banks have been in trouble following state's decision in 2008-07 to offer farm loans at as low as 6% interest, a government note said. 
 
The Cabinet also expressed satisfaction that the monsoon had picked up well by July end and the aggregate rainfall received till now is 61% of the average for the season. Except for 10 districts, including Yavatmal, Nashik, Aurangabad where there is deficiency, other districts have received over 50% rainfall. By July 28, sowing was done in 62% of the 134 lakh hectares expected under kharif coverage.

You Searched For "latur drought" and got 7 results

Maharashtra faces the tough challenge of using water either for drinking or for industries

BI India Bureau

11 years of operations, 11 villages to be rescued; SpiceJet pledges to help draught-hit Maharashtra

BI India Bureau

Drought-hit Maharashtra dams have no water left for irrigation

BI India Bureau

Bombay High Court says no IPL matches in drought-hit Maharashtra after April 30

BI India Bureau

Drought-like situation in Maharasthra and Karnataka. Blame it on low rainfall

BI India Bureau

The State of Indian Media

Amit Kapoor

Disaster Response Force For Maharashtra Cleared

Times Of India

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