1992 Drought in Maharashtra-Misplaced Priorities, Mismanagement of Water Resources

Misplaced Priorities, Mismanagement of Water Resources D N Dhanagare Why is it that conditions of water and food scarcity have become a recurrent historical pattern in Maharashtra, particularly in the less developed regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada? Why does this progressive and industrially advanced state have to suffer such an ignoble water scarcity after four decades of planned development? And, above all, why is it that chief ministers and ministers come and go, and political fortunes of parties too rise and fall, often dramatically, but the non-availability of safe and adequate drinking water to the common man and woman in rural Maharashtra continues unabated?