Water violence: Prohibitory orders in Maharashtra's Latur

MUMBAI: A week after prohibitory orders were imposed in Latur, hometown of former CM late Vilasrao Deshmukh, the administration banned assembly of five or more persons near all the water reservoirs in the neighbouring drought-prone Parbhani district too.
Last week, Latur collector Pandurang Pol had banned assembly of five or more persons near more than a dozen waterfilling points in the district.
"It was found that quite a large number of persons were gathering near water reservoirs, as a result, there was a serious law and order problem owing to acute shortage of water. Under such circumstances, the district administration invoked provisions of Section144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Now, more than five persons will not be allowed to assembly near water reservoirs," a senior official told TOI on Tuesday .

In view of acute shortage of water, the district administration has deployed 144 tankers to supply water to 147 villages, while 572 tankers have been deployed in Aurangabad, 339 in Jalna, 632 in Beed, 218 in Latur, 22 in Hingoli and 282 in Nanded. Parbhani district recorded 104 farmer suicides between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015.

Leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Tuesday criticized the Devendra Fadnavis government, saying, instead of providing drinking water to the villagers, it was imposing prohibitory orders in rural parts of the state. "Last week, assembly of five or more persons was banned in Latur and similar restrictions have been imposed in Prabhani. It reflects the poor performance of the government," Vikhe Patil said.
Vikhe Patil said despite the fact that at least six months ago he had brought it to the notice of the government that it was a grim situation and shortage of water should be tackled on a war footing, no serious measures were taken to provide drinking water to the people.
Even on providing water to the drought-hit Marathwada region by railways, while announcements have been made on several occasions, so far no concrete steps have been taken to actually provide water to the villages in the region, Vikhe Patil said.
PIL against use of water for pitches during IPL
The HC on Tuesday observed state that the drought situation in is a "serious issue"while hearing a PIL about water needed for maintaining pitches for the upcoming IPL cricket tournament.
A bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice B P Colabawalla heard the PIL by NGO Loksatta Movement, questioning the use of 60 lakh litres of water to maintain pitches at three stadiums in the state. The MCA said match tickets had been sold and it will incur huge loss if they are cancelled.