MP Pratibha Dhanorkar asks CM Fadnavis to add three taluks to drought list

Three taluks of Chandrapur district have been left out of the list of drought-affected taluks, drawing objections from MP Pratibha Dhanorkar. She said excluding Jiwati, Ballarpur and Brahmapuri taluks from the list was a grave injustice to farmers there.

Dhanorkar has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharne on the matter. In the letter, she has demanded that on-the-spot panchanamas be conducted immediately in all three taluks and that they be declared drought-affected so farmers can be given financial assistance.

In the letter, the MP said Chandrapur district depends mainly on agriculture, but Jiwati, Ballarpur and Brahmapuri were removed from the recently released list of drought-affected taluks. The reason given was that these areas received more than 75 percent of normal rainfall. However, Dhanorkar said rainfall this year was not uniform everywhere. She said data showed that one area received rain while another area barely 500 metres away saw none. She said in the letter that deciding the condition of an entire taluk based solely on the limited technical readings of rain gauges was deeply unfair to the interests of farmers.

She further wrote that these technical figures leave local farmers without assistance even though crops have suffered heavy losses in many areas, creating conditions akin to a severe drought there.

In view of this, MP Pratibha Dhanorkar has demanded that the administration not rely solely on rain gauge data, and instead order immediate on-the-spot panchanamas in all affected areas of Jiwati, Ballarpur and Brahmapuri taluks. She also demanded that all three taluks be declared drought-affected at the earliest and that farmers be given appropriate financial assistance and relief.