Yadav said that the CM did not even reply to his letter about the warning of drought.
Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav on Saturday alleged Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did not pay heed to his advise given six months ago on tackling the drought.
Yadav, a psephologist-turned-politician, who was earlier with AAP told reporters here, "Following my week-long 'Samvedna Yatra' in drought-affected districts of Maharashtra which began on October 2, I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister and apprised him not only of grim reality but also presented him precautions that could have subdued the severity (of drought) today."
Yadav is also the national convener of Jai Kisan Andolan.
He showed the letter he had had written to the CM after visiting Nanded, Parbhani, Latur, Beed, Solapur, Osmanabad, Jalna, Aurangabad and Jalgoan districts. "During my tour, I found that in Maharashtra, which has been a trend-setter in welfare schemes and has a history of farmers' movements, farmers were now completely ignored and we did not find the policies translating into desired outcomes."
"I proposed eight short-and medium-term suggestions such as declaration of drought, emergency measures to tackle water crisis, MGNREGA and Employment Guarantee Schemes to be implemented in letter and spirit, package for crop loss compensation, loan restructuring, increase in ration under PDS, a government order on compensation for farmers' suicides and measures to meet shortage of cattle fodder," he said. "I also put forth a few long-term measures...but unfortunately all this went unheard," said Yadav.
Citing the figures for 2015-16 from the MGNREGA website, he said the scheme had almost become defunct in most districts of the state. In the 21 drought-affected districts, of the 19,516 gram panchayats, in 6,352 gram panchayats no money was spent on MGNREGA. Of the total 88,632 gram panchayats in the state, there was no expenditure under MGNREGA in 9,022 panchayats, he said.
Yadav also demanded the state implement the recommendation of the Madhav Chitale committee to ban the sugarcane cultivation (which requires a lot of water) in the drought-prone areas of Maharashtra.
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