Communist Web Friday 12th May 2000 9.30pm gmt India: Drought and near famine situation The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) adopted the following resolution on April 25 in New Delhi on the drought afflicting a large part of India: The Central Committee of the CPI(M) expresses its grave concern at the severe drought conditions prevailing in large parts of the country. While the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat are the worst affected, drought conditions are also being reported in parts of Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. In Rajasthan, the life of over 2.5 crores* of people and 3.5 crores of cattle are threatened by drought. People in 26 out of the 32 districts are existing in miserable conditions - - drinking water is not available and underground water sources have dried up. Reports of starvation deaths are coming in from various parts of the state. People in over 26,000 villages are badly affected. The situation in Gujarat is equally miserable. The Kutch and Saurashtra regions are severely hit. Over 8,000 villages and 43 cities are without any source of water supply. Most of the reservoirs and dams in the state have dried up. The state government, instead of organising relief, has resorted to police actions for terrorising people who have come out on the streets in protest against relief not being provided. In all these states, the worst affected are mainly the rural poor, agricultural workers and daily wage labourers. The lackadaisical attitude adopted by the Central Government is, indeed, unfortunate. Reports suggest that this is probably the worst condition of drought leading to a near famine situation in independent India. Instead of treating this as a national calamity and organising relief on a... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/indiadrought/indiadrought.html
