Pune: Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar on Tuesday directed the district collectors of five districts - Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur - to implement all drought-related schemes of government and submit a weekly report on the drought status in their districts to the divisional commissioner’s office.
To address the drought situation in these five districts, Mhaisekar had called a meeting of collectors, zilla parishad officials, revenue officials and other government departments at the divisional commissioner office on Tuesday. Speaking at the meeting, Mhaisekar said that crisis management of water and fodder should be planned and executed by collectors of respective districts. “Detailed plan of fodder growth, area reserved for fodder plantation, fodder seeds distributed and also on water tanker management should be submitted at the divisional commissioner’s office,” added Mhaisekar. Sources said that senior officials have decided to approve drought relief projects only till March-end as such projects take a few months to be executed and normal monsoon is expected to arrive in June.
He asked the Revenue Department, Agriculture, Groundwater Survey and Water Resources Departments to work in sync with each other for better management of the drought. Officials said while the drought situation in Pune district is moderate, there is need to take good drought relief measures in Solapur, Sangli and parts of Satara districts. The State Government in January decided to include 931 more villages in Maharashtra as drought-hit, in addition to the 151 tehsils where relief work has already begun.
