WATER V/S IPL - IS THAT EVEN A CONTEST?
By Ruma Dubey
The Daulatabad Fort stands tall and elegant , towering over the Deccan plains. Halfway between Aurangabad and Ellora, this fort in 1327 was the city capital of the Tughlaq empire. Two years later, the magnificent fort had to be abandoned due to shortage of water.
And today, in 2016, the fort would be once again standing witness to another harsh summer and parched land, looking down sympathetically at the onset of a tough drought. At that time, it was probably easier to abandon a city and the entire population moves to areas where there was water. But today, neither the city nor the burgeoning population can be accommodated anywhere and not to mention the fact that they have nowhere to go where there is water. Today, India stands parched. People are fighting over water, women walks mile and miles to fetch a pail of drinking water. Villages are dry and even the tears of the farmers have long gone. There is no wail of grief, just a deafening silence over arid, cracked land. And what are our politicians busy with? Sloganeering and bickering within themselves. Bharat Mata ki jai! That has become more important than the plight of the Mother!
Yes, India is staring hard a very very bad drought and we still have two months before rains come calling. In the Western region, which includes states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with 27reservoirs, as at 31st March 2016, the total live storage available was just 21% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 40% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 44% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. It is worse in Southern region where storage is just 17% - this includes Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has announced that it will disconnect water supply to Thane, adjacent to Mumbai, for up to 60 hours each week. There are stories of people travelling into Mumbai city by train, carrying back water!
Given this background, where entire Maharashtra, except for Mumbai is facing severe water shortage, what is wrong with the Bombay High Court pulling up the BCCI and asking it to shift the venue of the IPL matches outside the state. This was in response to a petition filed by Loksatta Movement which challenged use of 60 lakh litres of water to maintain pitches at three stadiums where IPL matches would be held from April 9.
The Court had asked the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) how much water would be used in Wankhede stadium here. And the Association said, “over 40 lakh litres water for the 7 IPL matches.” Wow! That too in a state where women walk some 10-15 kms to get some 5-8 litres of drinking water.
The MCA says that it is paying for the water, which gives it a right to the water. Well, the MCA probably does not know that all residents of Thane and other suburban Mumbai who do not have water, pay too but still do not get water. So will the State govt now cut water supply to 80% so that more water can be diverted to play these matches?
Really, what priorities do our so-called leaders have? They cannot manage water what canals and roads can they build? Actually, the huge corruption in irrigation, where Ajit Pawar was involved, to a large extent is responsible for the plight that the state is in today. Crores and crores of rupees spent but people still do not have water and farmers continue to kill themselves.
To be more specific, in 2012, a Rs.70,000 crore scam was unearthed wherein Rs.35,000 crore was pocketed by the politician and contractor nexus. The widely read SANDRP says that Maharashtra is the most dammed state in the country. It has built dams wherever it can. Engineers and administrators agree in private that there are hardly any dam sites left in the state to build new dams!
Why don’t the so-called charitable and benevolent owners of these teams take the first step and be generous enough to demand a change in venue? Everything at all times cannot always be about money.