The Bombay High Court today asked Maharashtra government to inform what steps it had taken to tackle the drought situation in May and June when it may worsen before the onset of monsoon.
The reply is to be filed on May 5. Hearing a public interest litigation filed by Loksatta Movement seeking shifting IPL matches out of Maharashtra on account of water scarcity, a bench headed by Justice V M Kanade also asked the government to explain why it had not declared drought in the state so far.
"Merely shifting IPL out of the state will not be sufficient...We want to know what are the short-term and long- term steps taken by the government to tackle the drought situation," the bench said.
Acting Advocate General Rohit Dev said a policy to tackle the drought was in place. There was no need to declare drought because the statutory provisions were being implemented and short-term measures had been taken, he added.
On April 13, the court had ordered shifting of all IPL matches from Maharashtra after April 30.
