Most farmers in Saurashtra, Kuch and North Gujarat have lost their crops to the extent of 50 to 75 per cent and the farm labour has been deprived of their means of living. So far as the trading community is concerned their volume of business has shrunk.

During my recent visit to some of these areas, sources said that according to official statistics 9,421 villages, four cities and 79 other towns together with their nearly two crore people and one crore cattle were in the grip of a severe drought, the like of which was not experienced by the people in the last several decades.

Nearly 104 out of the 145 checkdams and most of the other water resources have dried up. Even the refinery city of Jamnagar could be supplied water once in two or three days and that too for just about 30 minutes. Other cities like Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Gondal, Amreli etc, were also hit by water shortage. Some borewells had been dug up at certain places, but they could not be provided with hand pumps for want of funds.

The problem of drinking water shortage is further spoiled by inept handling of it by the authorities. For instance, when a water tanker was being diverted from a suburb of Bhavnagar to some other place and the people took out a rally to protest against such arbitrariness they could get, not water, but tear-gas shells, firing in the air and even lathi charge. When some media persons went to Savarkundla to collect pictures of some water scarcity stricken areas, they were badly beaten up by the police.

Sources point out that in order to tackle the drought situation, urgent steps were necessary to supply adequate water, food, fodder and work to the people who might have lost their means of livelihood. Neither are the steps taken by the stage government in this direction adequate, nor is the much needed financial assistance forthcoming from New Delhi. This is considered all the more surprising when Gujarat is represented on the Union cabinet by home minister LK Advani and other ministers such as Kashiram Rana and Vallabh Kathiriya.

What is considered even more surprising is the fact that when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee recently visited Karamsad and Anand in Gujarat, the Government somehow could not organise any programme to take him to any scarcity-hit area to see for himself the suffering of the people and their cattle. Neither was any memorandum submitted to him on that occasion on the plight of the drought hit areas.

No doubt the state Government had earlier worked out an action plan to tackle drought situation at an outlay of nearly Rs 922 crore, hoping that nearly Rs 722 crore would be available from New Delhi to meet its cost. However by the third week of April the Centre had sanctioned just about Rs 55 crore. Recently an additional amount of Rs 208.47 crore has been assured.

Even so the central assistance may total Rs 263 crore while the cost of the action plan is expected to rise further to over Rs 1,131 crore. The state has claimed that it had distributed about 38,00,000 kg of fodder by the middle of April but the average for its 9,421 scarcity-hit villages will come to just about 300-400 kg. Some additional quantity has been received since then, but even then the average for each village may not go beyond 500 grammes.

The state has started about 4,238 relief works, providing employment to about 3.93 lakh workers, but it needs 17,381 relief works. But where are the necessary funds? Surprisingly, however, Gujarat finance minister Vajubhai Vala has, at a press conference, reportedly observed that it would not matter if New Delhi did not provide financial assistance expected from it as the state government would proceed with its master plan with its own funds.

He was moreover, reported to have further observed that no one in Gujarat had any difficulty either due to water or fodder shortage. On the other hand observers are worried that the people might have to pass through really tormenting times in the next two months or so, before the next monsoon.