It’s raining DIRTY Money here…

Even while people in Marathwada and Vidarbha crave for rains and relief, politicians not only hate rains, they are declaring normal rainfall zones as drought-hit. Clearly, financial bounties of drought relief are too high
Aritra Bhattacharya Aurangabad (Maharashtra)

On the afternoon of August 17, the road leading to the Shiva temple in Murdeshwar was choc-a-bloc with traffic - trucks packed with people crawled up the hill, those who alighted from other trucks walked alongside the giant vehicles. It was the day Abdul Sattar, Congress candidate for the forthcoming assembly election in Maharashtra from the region, was to perform rudrabhishek (a form of ritual worship of the Shiva linga to the accompaniment of Vedic mantras).

Those who thronged the temple were mostly farmers, some of whom had travelled over 60 km in trucks; the fuel for the journey being sponsored by some unknown do-gooder. If the farmers were risking losing a day's work on their fields, so be it. They did not have much to save anyway; most of the soyabean, maize, moong and urad crop in their fields had dried, in the absence of any rainfall, and any prospect of irrigation.

The region where the temple lay and from where the farmers came from had been classified as drought-affected by the Maharashtra government, like several other districts across the state. For the man on the street, this was a chance for free travel and a meal (prasad), which is a lot in times of drought. For politicians of Congress-NCP who had organised the ceremony and the public meeting thereafter, it was a show of strength, a time for promises. The farmers didn't have much expectation from their leaders nor were they complaining about the lack of relief activities. They have grown used to the neglect, the cold shoulder from the political class over the years. They, however, were hoping for some rain.

And rain it did, beginning that evening, ending a month-long dry spell in Marathwada (comprising eight districts - Jalna, Aurangabad, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad and Beed) and Vidarbha (comprising 11 districts - Amravati, Akola, Bhandara, Buldana, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Nagpur, Wardha, Washim, Yavatmal) and rest of the state over the next couple of days.

The rain gods haven't looked away since, prompting questions about whether the drought situation is as bad as the state government is making it out to be. In large parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha, it is. But, in some other areas declared as drought-hit, it isn't. What's prompting the announcements in this crucial election year is the bounty of drought relief funds.

Amar Habib, an activist with the Shetkari Sangathana, explains. "Baarish se politicians ko nuksaan hi hua (The rains have caused losses for our politicians)," he says.

With election to the state assembly scheduled in a couple of months, the connection between drought and politics is that much more crucial. For the honchos and dalals of the outgoing government, it is one last chance to make money. The trick is to get their districts or tehsils declared as drought-affected and pocket as much of the resources earmarked for drought-relief as possible.

The Maharashtra government has so far declared 159 tehsils as drought-affected. It says that another 100 or so tehsils are facing drought-like situation. That makes 259 tehsils out of a total of 353, or roughly two-thirds of the state, drought-hit.

Yet, take a closer look at the list of drought-affected tehsils and you will realise that it is a mix of rain-starved, arid regions where crops have failed miserably. And rain-fed areas that have received near-normal rainfall.