Maharashtra declares drought in 151 talukas

Maharashtra government today declared drought in 151 talukas. Of these, 112 talukas have severe drought and 39 have moderate drought.

This will enable the state government to initiate measures to mitigate the drought and demand assistance from the central government.

However, opposition parties have criticised the government for excluding a large number of villages and talukas from the list of of drought affected areas.


“20,000 villages in 201 talukas are drought hit. But drought has been declared only in 151 talukas. When will drought be declared in the remaining 50 talukas,” questioned Ashok Chavan, former Maharashtra chief minister via a tweet.

While Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde said, “The state had assessed that 180 talukas were facing drought. Now it has excluded 29 drought facing talukas. Due to the stringent rules of the 2016 Drought Manual of central government, about 100 talukas are feared miss the benefits of mitigation measures.”