#pudukkottai

There is no spate of deaths or raging diseases here. And perhaps because so much of Pudukkottai's pain is silent and hidden it has drawn no attention from both the government and press. A minister represents this sparsely endowed district at the legislature, but it wields little clout in the state capital. And invisible agony doesnt' make headlines. 'Does the crisis here have to descend into a catastrophe to merit attention?' asks one official. 'Would that not be a great tragedy?'

The district has an active and energetic collector, Anuradha Khatri Rajivan. She pins her hopes on a World Bank-assisted project that would bring Cauvery waters to Pudukkottai. That might solve at least the drinking water problem of Pudukkottai town. She is quite sincere about it. But governments in this region have an awful record in implementing such schemes. The Veeranam project of 1969 is best remembered by the unused water pipes that still provide shelter for the destitute in Madras. The Telugu Ganga project of 1983 is nowhere in sight. The first proposal to bring Cauvery waters to Pudukkottai, according to the district's gazetteer, 'was made in 1837'. Now, 156 years later, it remains a proposal. The drought, however, remains a reality.

Pudukkottai district as a whole is not under the drought-prone areas programme (DPAP) run by the central government. This is a district that often gets less than 800mm rainfall annually. Some districts in the north and east get much heavier rainfall, but have every block under DPAP. The logic is baffling. Unless, of course, the placing of blocks under DPAP is purely a political decision. The Centre has brought only four of Pudukkottai's thirteen blocks under the DPAP. It seems wary of the costs involved in such schemes.

Ramnad, among India's most backward districts, has a big list of convictions of arrack distillers. Nearly one every two hours, according to official data here. That rivals the record of Pudukkottai next door. Fine collections are also substantial: over ten lakh rupees in the past 150 days. The trade is huge and widespread. As in Pudukkottai, it traps a big part of the earnings of male agricultural workers addicted to arrack. Here too most women hate it as a destroyer of family income and peace. In several villages along the coastline, many fishermen also admit to drinking a lot of arrack. Sometimes, at a cost of three-quarters of a day's earnings - daily in some seasons. Arrack merchants allow credit to those they know they have hooked.

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