Marathwada

It was attended in large numbers by students in Pune because we have to understand that Pune is a center of, you know, where, uh, students across the state come and study for MPSC examination.

And, uh, these students, majority of them come from the Marathwada area of the state.

And, uh, typically, these are from, uh, farming families, you know.

They come here with their aspirations that they become government officers, and they're ready to serve the state as a government officer, so they are very large in number.

Colleges in the region were also directed not to charge examination fees to students from these areas.

Water availability remains a concern, particularly in Marathwada.

prompting the state to arrange tankers earlier than usual.

These policy moves signal how government intervention shifts from long-term welfare metrics to immediate cash flow support, depending on economic pressure points.

And it is also important to understand that for many women farmers, fetching water is only one part of what can be a long and physically demanding day, something that state's relief measures do not necessarily account for.

Recently, The Indian Express' Sadaf Mohdar traveled to some of the worst hit districts, including Marathwada.

She joins my colleague Shashank Bhargava to discuss the toll this drought has taken on the women living there.

Sadaf, even after decades of this taking place, it is mainly women that go out to fetch water, right? So tell us what you saw on the ground in this regard, and what toll does this take on women?

Yeah, actually, uh, you're right when you're saying that because we traveled across seven districts, including most parts of Marathwada, and, um, everywhere on the road we saw that, of course, there was water scarcity, but that most of the times women were the ones who were involved in sort of traveling far, traveling kilometers to carry water on their heads.

And we saw minor girls involved in that work, and of course, the pressure that it puts on the household.

There are sort of roles that each member plays, and there are...

In other major news, opposition parties may be trying to remain on the same page nationally when it comes to taking on the BJP, but a recurring problem has been resolving their differences at the regional level.

In Maharashtra, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi's plan to contest the 23rd of October Legislative Council elections together is under strain, with the Congress and the Shiv Sena UBT set to face each other in Amravati teacher's constituency, while the Sena UBT and the NCP SP are pitted against each other in the Marathwada graduates' constituency.

The other seats where elections are being held are Pune graduates, Nagpur graduates, and Pune teachers.

Meanwhile, it was almost a foregone conclusion that the Reserve Bank of India would increase the policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5% today.

Talk about which parts of Maharashtra have experienced the most serious agricultural damage, and which crops have been particularly affected.

Uh, the areas are especially Marathwada area and, uh, the western Vidharba part.

They are largely affected by this drought.

Marathwada is a drought-prone region in the state.

Now, if you say in Marathwada region, there are, uh, the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Dhulya, Nanded, Parbhani, and Hingoli.

These are the districts in this Marathwada region.

Out of these, except for Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nanded, all districts have been declared drought prone.

So even in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nanded, only one or two tehsils have been left out.

So they have, I think, a membership of almost around, I think, 500 or 600 people in their group.

This is in Central Vidarbha and Marathwada and that belt.

And what they did was they selected a date, 26th of November, which is Constitution Day.

And they just parked themselves in front of bus stops and bus stands and schools.

So that is an 18% overall shortfall, but it is highly regionalized.

Like Marathwada is facing a 38% deficit, and Vidarba is at 27%.

Yeah.

But, you know, declaring a drought on paper is just a bureaucratic starting gun.

You see, Gangakhed is a small town of about 50,000 people on the banks of the Godavari River.

It is in the driest, most forgotten corner of Marathwada, sugarcane country, temple country.

And the shop itself, Kaveri Mobiles, is exactly what a phone shop in a town like that should be.

Glass counter, a wall of covers and chargers, a soldering iron in the back, and a quiet young man behind the counter who fixes your screen, sells you a recharge, and never quite makes conversation.

He has no bank account.

He gets no visitors.

He is, by every available measure, the most boring man in Marathwada, which is why what happens on the morning of Sunday, September 28th, 2014, makes no sense at all.

Because on that morning, a team from the Mumbai Crime Branch, the same unit that hunts gangsters and contract killers, a team that has spent the past month knocking on doors in South Bombay dressed as courier delivery boys, walks into Gangakhed and picks up the phone repair guy.