48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST existing economic system flashes danger signals. Then alone are measures taken to tide over the crisis without disturbing in essence the status quo. The perpetual risk of drought in the State has been recognised for decades. The need to provide, on a massive scale, for water storage and soil conservation has been too obvious. The State has no lack of technical ability or of resources to undertake such works in order to meet the constant hazard of drought. The State Government managed to find the resources for completing on a basis priority the huge Koyana hydroelectric project for providing electricity to the growing industry in Bombay. In the process millions of gallons of impounded water are being literally poured down into the Arabian sea. The Government is now committed to the fabulous project of 'New Bombay9 to give further boost to the industrial growth in the Bombay region. It has, however, neglected the management of the water resources so vital to the overall development of the rural economy. Water resources have been tapped intensively only in limited pockets, where capitalist development is taking place around the nucleus of the sugar industry. In what follows is presented, a resume of the current 'scarcity' and the measures adopted by the Government to 'combat' it. The details, as they come out, present not only the wretched living conditions of the people but also the growing crisis of the path of development taken by the ruling classes. Drought Current The year 1972-73 found Maharashtra in the grip of a severe drought. In the districts of Sholapur, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Bhir And Osmanabad the ravages are complete, except, of course, for the lush-green sugarcane belts where the sugar kings are the masters of their own destiny. They were merrily growing sugarcane and grapes, manufacturing crystal-sugar and bubbling wine, while the countryside was being scorched in heat, burnt brown and desolate; the people destitute and flocking the famine works in the gruelling summer heat. The foodgrains— wheat and milo (along with poisonous dhatura seed)—get imported from abroad, yet are not grown in the water-blessed tracts of these districts; nor can fodder be grown in the watered fields. The cattle have to be disposed of for a song or just left to die. According to official statements, scarcity conditions were acute in nine districts and in the rest of the 16 districts some talukas were hit by the drought. The total rural population of the severely affected nine districts comes to 143 lakhs according to the 1971 census. The official estimates of the scarcity-affected are of the order of 200 lakhs people, or 57 per cent of the State's rural population. About 40 per cent of the cattle, that is, about 56 lakhs of which 27 lakhs are working bullocks, was hit by the drought. Over a third of this number is reported to have been already sold out and butchered. It is hard to say how long the rest of the famished cattle would survive. The replacement cost of the cattle