It won’t rain votes in these drought districts

Voters in Khatav in Satara district of Maharashtra are angry. So angry that they have decided not to vote. ‘‘We don’t want to...

Voters in Khatav in Satara district of Maharashtra are angry. So angry that they have decided not to vote. ‘‘We don’t want to vote for anyone, as no one has turned up to see how we survive. If they come asking for votes, we will not allow them to stand at our door,’’ says Bhimabai in Khatav.

Khatav is drought hit. For the third consecutive year, western Maharashtra has been reeling under water scarcity. An estimated three million people have been affected. The situation is expected to translate into low voter turnout in Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts. Polling gets under way on April 20 in Sangli and Solapur and on April 26 in Satara.

Of the 353 talukas in the state, 71 talukas in 11 districts have had poor rain and have been declared as drought hit. Twenty-eight talukas (2,789 villages) are in Pune, Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts.

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The situation is so severe that for most farmers, the paisewari (average yield per acre) is less than 50. ‘‘Without water, our life is a long struggle. Cattle are dying for want of water and fodder. How do they expect us to vote when all the politicians have left us to die,’’ asks Ramling in Jat taluka (Sangli district) where more than 500 cattleheads have died in two months.

The kharif crop has failed so the distraught farmers have not gone in for rabi sowing. It is the fourth year of drought-like situation in these parts.

	LACK OF FUNDS, LACK OF BENEVOLENCE

			• All the work on the various water projects taken up by the Krishna Valley Development Corporation in the region is at a standstill because of lack of funds. The voters are angry with sitting MPs Prakashbapu Patil of Sangli, Laxman Patil of Satara and Ramdas Athavle of Pandharpur, who haven’t even visited the area. All the three are in fray again but party workers are reluctant to campaign in drought zones. ‘‘We have no answer to offer to the affected people,’’ they admit. —ENS

The state government says it has deployed water tankers, set up fodder camps and the attendance at Employment Guarantee Scheme works is the highest in the three years. Yet, little has percolated to their level, say villagers.

Officials say Rs. 1.5 crore are spent on distributing drinking water, Rs 3 crore on EGS works, and Rs 1,108 crore have been set aside for relief measures. But the ground reality has not changed, claim the villagers.

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‘‘The government claims to have spent crores to tackle the situation, but we have not seen them,’’ says Prashant Shinde from Satara.

‘‘Election time means a flurry of activity. That will be clearly missing this time because of the impact of the drought,’’ say party activists in Sangli.