CM angry as complaints from Latur pour in

Devendra Fadnavis questioned the collector about reasons for residents not getting water even as the state has been supplying water to the district daily

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday expressed discontent over complaints from people about not getting water despite lakhs of litres of water being supplied in Latur by railway wagons daily. The chief minister was reviewing drought mitigation measures with collectors of the drought-hit districts through video conferencing.

Men risk their lives to fetch water by going down into a 40-feet well in Latur on Saturday. (Hindustan Times)

While the state government is providing 50 lakh litres of water to Latur by railway wagons, this is in addition to the 50 lakh litres of water the district is getting with the help of Lower Terna Water Supply Scheme that became operational since mid-April.

Despite making these efforts, complaints from people of Latur about not getting water left the CM baffled and he questioned Latur collector Pandurang Pole on this, said a senior official from CMO, who was present at the video conferencing.

Pole admitted that there were problems in storing water and also in its distribution as the water supply system of the city is very old. This supply system cannot be fixed in such a short time and thus the monitoring system has been strengthened by starting a control room, the official informed.

Moreover, water tankers deployed to supply water to the district have also been installed with a GPS system so that their real-time activities can be monitored and proper distribution can be ensured, the Latur collector informed during the video conferencing.

At present, 281 tankers are deployed to supply water in the Latur district.

Meanwhile, the NCP chief Sharad Pawar has decided to create awareness among drought affected people as how to cope up with the situation. This will be done in Aurangabad on May 16 where the party is organising drought conference (DushkaalParishad), said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik on Thursday.

Pawar will also help families affected with farmer suicide by providing them financial relief of Rs 15,000 per family. Senior NCP leader will also hold similar parishad in different drought-hit districts during May 16 to 21. Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar is also going on two-day drought tour from Friday.