Don't dig well when house is on fire, SC warns govt on handling drought

Supreme Court | File Photo
Supreme Court | File Photo

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court admonished the Centre on Wednesday for repeating the mistakes it committed last year in tackling the drought in some parts of the country and warned that the same situation would occur again this year.

“Don’t dig the well when the house is on fire,” the Supreme Court observed as it warned the Centre of not repeating last year’s mistakes in tackling the drought situation in various parts of the country this time.

Asking the government to be ready with relief measures for drought in certain parts of country  this year, the apex court said, “we are concerned about the approach. You should change your mindset. Don’t repeat last year’s mistake of not declaring drought on time.”  The observation by a bench of Justices M B Lokur and N V Ramana came when it was pointed out that several districts in country have had deficient rainfall and a situation like last year may emerge again which may catch the government napping.

Additional Solicitor General P S Narsimha, appearing for the Union government, said, “it is wrong to say that Centre is not dealing with the drought-like situation. The process is going on as directed by the court. We are revising our drought manual as per suggestions and recommendations made by experts and other bodies.”

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO ‘Swaraj Abhiyan’, pointed out that several districts have reported deficient rainfall as per the data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

To this, the bench told the ASG that by now the Centre must have got an idea of rainfall details across the country and asked whether it had issued any advisory to the affected states in this regard. The bench said that as per data supplied to it, 12 districts in Bihar, 32 in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in Punjab and 13 in Gujarat have received deficient rainfall.

Narsimha pointed out that advisories have been issued to these states which have been told about the situation. “Our idea is you are ready for the future. Past mistakes are not repeated. You should be prepared for the situation, although the condition is not as bad as last year,” the bench said.

A central government official informed the court that over 35 lakh hectares of farm land have been sown and the Centre was providing all technical assistance to states.

The apex court, is hearing a PIL on the plight of farmers in 12 states which were affected by drought last year. The court had earlier issued a slew of directions to provide relief to the farmers in drought-affected states.

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