Lathur: Maharashtra’s Marathwada may be reeling under acute drought, but that does not stop the local administration from wasting water while making arrangements for a minister’s visit.

On Friday, the officials reportedly utilised 10,000 lts of water to lay out a makeshift helipad at Belkund village in the dried Lathur district to make way for Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse’s visit.

The irony is that Khadse was in Lathur to review measures taken to tackle the severe drought and launch a scheme to tackle the water scarcity.

While the opposition slammed the BJP questioning as to why the airstrip in Lathur city, merely 47 kms from the spot where the helipad was laid out was not used, the government has defended the administration stating water was used to settle dust which is mandatory for the chopper to land.

Latur, one of the worst hit pockets of Marathwada was recently supplied with five lakh litres of water in a water train.