54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST It is also important to note how the water resources made available are being utilised. The area under sugarcane was about 9 per cent of the irrigated area in 1955-56 and the water used for that crop at around 48 per cent. In 1968-69, sugarcane accounted for 13 per cent of the irrigated area and used about 58 per cent of the water available for irrigation. The figures clearly speak of the modus operandi of the irrigated agriculture in the State. Conclusion The analysis of the drought situation in Maharashtra provides ample evidence of the widespread distress conditions. Yet, the scarcity is not recognised bp the Government as 'scarcity5, as long as the status quo can be maintained. Careful planning and conservancy of water resources and their proper utilisation would have minimised the sufferings of the mass of people not only in 1972-73 but in the earlier years as well. In the pre-1947 days the Congress party could rightly find fault with 'British colonial indifference9. But it is impossible to find any scapegoat in the post-1947 period as the Congress has ruled and continues to rule the country. The lack of a purposeful irrigation policy in Maharashtra has to be seen more as an index of the strength of the landlord elements rather than one of technical or financial incapacity of the State. A report of the survey team of IIT students who volunteered to provide technical help in the construction of percolation tanks in Osmanabad district reveals the character of the ruling classes. The team found that, . . . wherever the rich peasant feels that he is not likely to benefit from the percolation tanks, he obstructs its construction. At one place in Osmanabad taluka, the landowner sent some goondas with lathis to greet us with the message that we should pack off. . . In another village in Bhum taluka we were asked to stop the survey work and were threatened with murder unless we left at once. The MLA from this area owns quite some land. He wanted the tanks to be constructed on particular sites. The Government engineer talked to us very favourably about these sites without ever having seen them or known anything about them.2 This experience points to an important aspect of the agrarian situation in Maharashtra, namely, the vicious nature of land relations which impedes the involvement of the people in the development process—a crucial prerequisite for economic growth. 1 Report of'the Irrigation Commission, 1972, Vol II, Ministry of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi, 1972, pp 241-49 and 457. 2 Achyut Godbole, "Productive Relief Works for the Rich", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol VHI, Number 17, April 28, 1973, p 773.