Maharashtra orders a minimum 10 percent water cut from 16 October

This note is NP NOW. The stamp is verified. It was last checked at 1:14 pm IST on 11 October 2026 and posted at 1:11 pm IST. It follows the note posted on 7 October about the same cut.

On 5 October 2026, Maharashtra's water resources minister, Girish Mahajan, said, in words carried by PTI: "Drinking water will be given the highest priority. All municipal corporations, municipalities and gram panchayats have been directed to implement a 10 per cent water cut from October 16." The cut is a minimum of 10 percent. It starts on 16 October. All India Radio carried that order at 5:40 pm IST on 5 October. The Economic Times, Business Standard, India TV, Hindustan Times, Scroll and Lokmat are among the reports of the same direction.

Who must apply it is not phrased the same way in every report. Mahajan's sentence names municipal corporations, municipalities and gram panchayats. AIR and Scroll say urban local bodies. The line on the screen, "cities, towns and villages," follows the minister's sentence, not the shorter urban-only line.

The reason given is a weak monsoon and dams that are short of full. Hindustan Times puts average water availability in the dams at 75.25 percent at the end of the monsoon. The screen says the dams are only 75 percent full. Drinking water is the first use of what is stored. The plan stated with the cut is that drinking water must last until August 2027.

A fresh check at 1:14 pm IST on 11 October found no report that the cut had been postponed or withdrawn. It is still described as taking effect on 16 October. The Times of India, in a Nagpur report timed at 12:10 am IST on 11 October, says the 10 percent cut is set to take effect from 16 October, and that the Nagpur municipal circular is expected next week. The Karbhari, at 8:13 am IST on 10 October, reports that the Khadakwasla irrigation division wrote to the Pune municipal corporation, citing water-resources resolutions including one of 5 October 2026, for a minimum 10 percent cut. An earlier pass of this check had not found that resolution on a government page. Lokmat Times reports that Pimpri-Chinchwad will reduce supply by an additional 10 percent from 16 October, and names water-resources executive engineer Kiran Deshmukh.

The links under this article are AIR, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, Business Standard, Scroll, India TV, Lokmat, three Times of India reports, The Indian Express, The Karbhari and Lokmat Times. The stamp also names the Free Press Journal's Marathi edition and Navarashtra. Those two are not given as links here.

This note is the statewide minimum, and the 11 October check that the 16 October date was still standing. It does not set out a timetable for any one city.

The cover is an NP typographic graphic. No photograph is used.