Rain god blesses Marathwada, finally

Marathwada, which is witnessing unprecedented drought situation this year, heaved a sigh of relief on Monday when almost the entire region received good showers as a result of withdrawal of monsoon. However, the amount of rainfall the region received would not be enough to pull it out of the grip of drought, at least till October-November.

Shrinivas Aundhkar, director of Nanded-based Mahatma Gandhi Mission for Astronomy and Space Technology, had predicted that return monsoon would bring showers to Marathwada. When contacted over phone, Aundhkar told dna that return monsoon was active due to low pressure clouds over the Bay of Bengal and that it would remain active for the next two-to-three days. Based on Monday's cloud picture and other parameters, Aundhkar predicted that the state would witness rains, with hailstorms, after November-December, which would continue till April-May next year. However, it would not be heavy rains, he added.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had visited four districts of Marathwada -- Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Parbhani -- last week to review the drought situation. He was accompanied by guardian ministers Pankaja Munde, Dr Deepak Savant and Diwakar Raote. During his visit, Fadnavis interacted with the farmers in all the four districts and assured them of every possible help.

Parts of Marathwada -- including Osmanabad, Nanded, Hingoli, Jalna, Parbhani -- received a fair amount of rains with Osmanabad witnessing water-logging at several places. Nanded received heavy rains for more than an hour in the evening. Hingoli, Parbhani and Osmanabad received rains for the entire day while Nanded witnessed showers till late evening.