The politics of drought

It's a bewildering statistic -- a preposterous claim really. If 78% of land did indeed have water supply then why would a delay in the monsoons or erratic rainfall create a drought situation in 58 out of 71 districts.

The answer lies in the ground realities.

Says Turi Ram, a farmer in Gutaya village of district Hardoi: "Our fields are simply not irrigated, if they were there would be development."

Irrigation canals from rivers is traditionally the most common way in which water reaches the fields.

But travel to any village in this region as we did and what you will find is that the final stretch of the canal system or gul looks like this.

The guls are what actually deliver water to the farmers, but they are neglected and bone dry

Ironically, the Sharda river which should be feeding the canals is overflowing but even bigger channels like this one not connected and crumbling.

The only water you see stagnant rain water of the past 3 days.

A total mockery of the canal system.

Pyarelal, a farmer, says: "All the official canals are in this state. Usually you can't even spot the 'guls' and the canals"

There is no official irrigation here. Shockingly, the villagers are still made to pay for it.

Mathuri, another farmer: "We don't mind paying if we get water but when there is no irrigation why are we still made to pay for it"

Last year, the villagers protested by burning the receipts outside the canal department's office.

An office that is as crumbling as the grassroot canals.

"Engineering staff will see" responds Shishpal, supervisor, canal department, when told that there is no sign of irrigation in villages.

The supervisor's answers are largely incoherent, except for one significant fact.

Q: What percentage of fields in your area actually get irrigated water?

A: 25%

This grassroot official estimate of 25% far more truthful. Shockingly, the official figure for irrigation in Hardoi is 81.35% even higher than the imagined 78% declared by the government for the entire state.

Then we come across a huge board showing Rajiv Gandhi's picture and caption saying village is fully electrified.

"There are boards like this everywhere, but no power," says a villager.

It's the same story...village after village.

Here's another way of getting water to the fields --governemtn tubewells. There are many in this region, but they are completely unreliable to farmers when it comes to delivery because of erratic power.

The lock on the door is symbolic. The operator, Ram Avartar, arrives and is candid:

"Tubewells don't run because we don't get proper power supply even though we have complained."

The gap between the imagined and the real so acute it's not surprising that  people in this region as dependent on rain as their forefathers were still trapped in vicious cycles of poverty and hunger and of recurring drought.