Latur district collector Bharat Bastewad set up a war room as all 10 talukas face drought. “Since the drought situation requires continuous coordination and daily monitoring, a drought relief war room has been established at the district level,” the order said. Officials will now monitor water, fodder, and crop conditions daily.

The war room has been established at the district control room under an order issued by district collector Bharat Bastewad under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Drought Management Code, 2016.

“Since the drought situation requires continuous coordination and daily monitoring, a drought relief war room has been established at the district level,” the order stated.

It will monitor drought-related measures daily, including crop assessments, drinking water availability, tanker requirements, fodder availability, electricity supply, crop-loan restructuring, examination fee waivers, employment, water conservation, and groundwater recharge.

Tahsildar Varsha Manale has been appointed chief and coordinator of the war room, while Naib Tahsildars DM Ghuge and Shivmurti Bansode have been appointed deputy chiefs. Officials from the revenue, agriculture, animal husbandry, electricity, municipal administration and zilla parishad departments have also been deployed.

Bastewad said one of the war room’s key responsibilities would be to obtain village-wise daily reports on drinking water sources, their availability, tanker requirements and identification of tanker-filling points.

“It will also monitor action against illegal water extraction, including seizure of pumps used to draw water illegally from public sources, removal of unauthorised water connections and measures to prevent water wastage,” Bastewad said.

“The war room will coordinate with the animal husbandry department to assess village-wise fodder availability and the possible requirement for fodder camps or depots. It will also collect reports from the agriculture department on crop advisories, measures to protect orchards and planning for the upcoming rabi season,” he said.

The administration has directed the war room to monitor pre-harvest crop inspections, e-crop surveys and AgriStack Farmer ID registrations daily.

Tahsildars have been asked to organise village-level meetings with farmers, hear their grievances, counsel them on the drought situation and provide information about government schemes and relief measures.

All daily reports will be consolidated and submitted to the district collector, resident deputy collector and the concerned nodal officers.