The water is running out, and the state government is hauling it in by the truckload.
611 tankers — 15 government-owned and 596 private — are now crisscrossing 10 districts in Maharashtra, serving 517 villages and 2,147 hamlets where wells and ponds have turned to dust. The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar revenue division is bleeding the most, with 263 tankers deployed there alone. Ahilyanagar follows with 153 tankers keeping 150 villages afloat.
But the numbers on the ground aren’t just about logistics; they’re about survival. In Beed, the crisis has turned violent. Police have registered cases against residents installing illegal motors to siphon water from the Urdhva Kundalika Medium Project and Aranwadi storage tank. The administration is running a joint crackdown, treating water theft as a criminal act, not just a resource issue.
Enter the central government. Muktanand Agrawal, Joint Secretary and CEO at the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, led an inter-ministerial team into the state on October 8. In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Divisional Commissioner G Srikant briefed the panel on the stark reality: rainfall deficits, Kharif crop losses, and fodder shortages that are starving livestock.
The team hits the field on October 9 and 10, covering Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, and Beed before moving to Washim and Yavatmal in Western Vidarbha. Their four-day survey ends with a closed-door session with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, the crisis has sparked a different kind of outrage. Standing Committee Chairman Prabhakar Shinde wrote to the BMC commissioner after the city spent Rs 8 crore washing roads to combat air pollution. The question stings: why burn scarce water on asphalt when villages 300 kilometers away are drinking from tankers? The answer, officials say, is coming soon.