Central committee to visit Latur district over water crisis

A central fact-finding committee will visit the district to study the severe water crisis in Maharashtra's Latur and find ways to tackle the problem.
"We are daily hearing about the tense situation in Latur. I have asked our Secretary to get a fact-finding report from there," Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today said.
"Be it the issue related to drinking water (which is a state subject), it is possible the reservoirs providing drinking water there come under our purview and we can intervene and figure out a solution," Bharti said.
The Central Water Commission Committee is likely to visit the district next week, she said while briefing media persons here about the upcoming 'India Water Week'.

She said the government is "prepared to face drought" situation and added it is focusing on completing irrigation projects in a time-bound manner to address water issues.
The intervention by the ministry comes in wake of the Railway Ministry's decision to transport water to the drought-affected district during summer.

According to the decision, two goods trains will be deployed to transport water to Latur and the trips of the trains will be arranged as per requirement.
In view of possibility of violence given the water crisis, local authorities have banned groups of people from gathering near water sources.
Not more than five people are allowed at wells and public storage tanks for the next two months. Water tankers go there once a week and locals receive tap water just once a month.

Latur, about 500 kilometres east of Mumbai, is part of Maharashtra's drought-ravaged Marathwada region and its half-a-million residents are reeling from years of below-par monsoon rains.