NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Gujarat, Bihar and Haryana for not declaring drought despite experiencing deficient rainfall. The court also criticised the states for their apathy in dealing with the issue.
The SC Bench comprising Madan B Lokur and N V Ramana expressed anguish over the states’ refusal to accept that there was a drought even though people were suffering. The court rapped the State governments for filing shoddy statistics on the drought-hit areas.
When the counsel for Gujarat submitted that only 526 villages were affected, the court questioned why there was delay in declaring drought even in these villages. When the counsel said this could not be done owing to the elections, the court countered the line of argument by asking if all work would stop during election.
Haryana’s counsel clarified that the State had not declared drought as there had been no fall in its foodgrain production.
The Bihar government stated that all help was being provided to areas experiencing deficient rainfall.