95-year-old Ahilyanagar farmer says he has never seen such a drought in drinking water and fodder
Sudhakar Shinde, who says he has lived through five droughts, warns that people and cattle will die if water and aid do not arrive in time.
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The drought in Ahilyanagar district has become extremely grave. Government meetings are under way, announcements are plentiful and the guardian minister is holding review meetings. On the other side, a stark reality stands at the edge of the fields. This has come to light once again through the plea of Sudhakar Shinde, a 95-year-old farmer of the district.
"I am 95 years old and have seen five droughts so far," Shinde said. "But I have never in my life seen such a severe drought of drinking water and fodder." He warned that if the government does not deliver water and help in time, both people and cattle will die. His angry and sharp plea appears to expose the paper claims of the administration.
Shinde also spoke of the difference between earlier droughts and the present one. According to him, even when drought struck earlier, some arrangement for drinking water would be made somewhere. Today, there is no drinking water for people, and neither fodder nor water is left for animals. He voiced his anger over this.
The government claims that drought inspections and panchnamas are being carried out, but according to Shinde the picture in the fields is entirely different. Asked whether government officials come to the field to record the crop, he said officials come to the village but not to the field. They tell farmers to record it on their mobile phones through an app. Shinde asked whether an elderly man of 95 like him knows how to use a mobile phone. He said officials should come to the fields themselves, inspect the crops and record them.
On the counting of livestock, Shinde said a man came yesterday. He has 10 cattle, the man recorded them and said, "I have come today, I will not come tomorrow." Shinde says officials finish the work in haste in this way and leave, and nobody stays at the farm to understand the farmers' problems.
The state of the crops is also bad. With no rain, the crops in the fields have been completely destroyed. Shinde said that the gram crop harvested from his field yielded not even one or two sacks of grain, let alone chaff for the animals. With the crops dried up, the farmer is completely broken.
Shinde also questioned the meetings of the district's guardian minister. He said that on one hand review meetings are being held to give the impression that the situation is fine, while on the other there is not a drop of water in the villages. A wide gulf has opened between government figures and the reality in the fields.
He warned plainly that if conditions remain the same and the government does not immediately deliver drinking water, fodder for animals and financial aid, then in the coming days animals and people alike will lose their lives for want of water and fodder. The whole district is now watching whether the government and administration will wake up after this plea and immediately start relief camps and water tankers.
