Comparison between ground water table of Maharashtra & Orissa.Page (2) Index Page (3) Map of Orissa & Maharashtra to be drawn Page (4) Ground water table of both the states (paste picture, graph can be drawn) Page (5) (You can take reference of 5 years for drawing the graph of ground water) Page (6) (You can use two-three more pages for this) Page (7) Reference Page (8) Acknowledge.
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Haryana, which gets an annual precipitation of 689 millimetres (mm), holds the highest levels of usable groundwater with 3,593 centimeters (cm) while Himachal Pradesh with a precipitation of 1,147 mm per year has the lowest UGWS level of 520 cm.
Drought-like conditions prevail in several states across the country with Maharashtra and Odisha being the worst affected, reports from across the indicated on Friday.
People in the parched areas continued to suffer from the scarcity of water even as crops over hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been severely affected.
The central and state governments have been found wanting, and even lax in responding to, the impending drought in some states.
Besides Maharashtra and Odisha, some parts of states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are experiencing severe water scarcity and drought-like conditions.
Over 27,000 of the total 43,000 villages in Maharashtra - or nearly 60 percent - are reeling under a drought of varying severity this year, besides facing serious water shortages in most urban centres across the state, officials said in Mumbai.
"Of these, a majority are located in the North Maharashtra (Khandesh), Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of the state, and virtually nil water availability has resulted in widespread human and cattle migration to nearby urban centres, adding to their woes," a Maharashtra government official told IANS in Mumbai.
In Latur, among the worst-hit along with Beed and Osmanabad districts, the centre had made provisions for carrying water by trains from Sangli district which has brought some relief to the people there.
The Maharashtra government has announced drought relief measures of over Rs.11,000 crore (over $1.5 billion) this year, including provision for supplying drinking water, fodder and water for cattle. Despite all this, over 300 lives have been lost, including farmers and around a dozen related to people searching for water in remote areas.
The state has been under fire from the Bombay High Court, both from its Mumbai and Nagpur bench for its indifferent attitude to the water crises, which led to the cancellation of all IPL matches scheduled in the state this month.
The Shiv Sena ruling ally has criticized the BJP's failure to tackle the crisis headlong, even as the assembly's monsoon is some 40 days away. Top leaders of all political parties including the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are currently touring the drought-hit areas.