Drought: Swaraj Abhiyan accuses Centre of double standard

Swaraj Abhiyan, led by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, on Thursday accused the Centre of double standard in dealing with drought situation in the country. It said the government’s hypocrisy of farmer-friendly sloganeering of ‘Gram Uday’ was exposed, when it abdicated all responsibility for drought management during a hearing in Supreme Court.

“Throughout the day-long hearing of Swaraj Abhiyan’s drought PIL in the Supreme Court on April 19, the Centre pleaded its limited role in helping the 33 crore farmers and rural people in great distress due to drought in 256 districts of the country’s 10 states. This does not include Gujarat, Haryana and Bihar that are trying to hide drought in their states,” said the Abhiyan in a release.