The Congress on Sunday questioned the Maharashtra government’s push to expand the data-centre industry at a time when the state has officially declared drought across 265 of its 358 talukas.
The Maharashtra government announced the drought declaration on Saturday, covering roughly 74 percent of the state after a dip in rainfall. Along with the declaration, the government announced relief steps such as restructuring crop loans, giving concessions on land revenue, and offering subsidies on power bills.
Congress’s head of media and publicity, Pawan Khera, said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had declared drought in nearly three-fourths of the state even as Maharashtra continues to aggressively build up its data-centre sector. He asked what the government’s plan was to ensure that water is not diverted away from farmers and ordinary citizens to fuel this expansion of data centres.
Khera also raised the question of priority, asking who should have the first claim over water in a state that already has one of the highest rates of farmer suicides in the country — farmers or data centres.
He pointed to reports that the state is planning a system where municipal corporations would treat sewage, which the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation would further purify before selling the reclaimed water to data centres and other industries. Khera asked why the same urgency has not been shown in supplying reliable reclaimed water to farmers, which he said could help ease the distress behind farmer suicides.
Explaining the water concern further, Khera noted that data centres consume large volumes of both power and water, with the exact water use depending on the cooling technology a facility uses. He said this makes water demand a serious factor to weigh, especially in a water-stressed state like Maharashtra.
According to the government resolution issued late on Friday, the 265 drought-hit talukas are spread across 32 districts and were identified after a review of rainfall deficits during the 2026 Kharif season. District collectors have been asked to begin assessing crop losses, and the government has said that financial assistance for these losses will be decided separately once the assessment process is complete.
Congress was not alone in criticising the state government over the drought announcement. Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar called the government’s handling of the crisis a serious betrayal of farmers, saying the relief package announced alongside the drought declaration does little for people already struggling with large-scale crop losses caused by poor rainfall. He warned that if the government does not follow up with real and immediate aid, a joint agitation involving farmers and farm labourers would be launched across the state.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) leaders also accused the government of letting farmers down, recalling that promises made last year of compensation for land losses and crop insurance payouts had failed to materialise. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, who visited affected villages in the Marathwada region, said that major crops such as soybean and pigeon pea had been ruined, and argued that simply declaring a 75 percent drought on paper would not help farmers who need actual, tangible support.
The drought declaration and the government’s response come as Maharashtra continues to pursue ambitious plans to grow its digital infrastructure and attract large investments into the data-centre sector, even as large parts of the state face acute water stress and mounting concern over its impact on agriculture.
