Slamming the Central Government, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court warned Center against last year’s mistake and asked it to declare a drought condition well in time to tackle the situation better.

A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice N V Ramana 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. Don’t dig the well when the house is on fire.”

The bench noticed that several districts in the country has received lower rainfall and a situation like last year could emerge again when delay in declaring drought had affected relief work.

Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha, appearing for the Central Government said that they were dealing with the drought-like situation appropriately and the process to revise the drought manual is also on its way.

Citing the Indian Meteorological Data (IMD), appearing for the petitioner NGO, Swaraj Abhiyan, advocate Prashant Bhushan highlighted that several districts had reported the percentage of lower rainfall.

The bench said, citing the supplied data, 32 districts in UP, 11 in Punjab, 12 in Bihar and 13 in Gujarat had received deficient rainfall. The bench asked ASG that now the center 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.

Bench said, “Our idea is that you are ready for the future (and) past mistakes are not repeated. You should be prepared for the situation, although the condition is not as bad as it was last year.”

By slamming the Maharashtra government over its failure to give response to the appointment of District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) under National Food Safety Act, Supreme Court said, “How is it that you don’t have any instructions? Is this how you treat people? People are dying of malnutrition and you don’t care about them. How is that the state government has not given you any instruction?”  

By Prajakt K