Actor Randeep Hooda volunteered with Khalsa Aid, an NGO that provides humanitarian aid to distressed regions all over the world, at villages near Nashik, Maharashtra to bring relief to drought-hit areas.
In a selfie video he uploaded on his social media handles, Hooda said,
“I’m in Maharashtra’s Vele village, which is 37 km away from Nashik, and 150km Mumbai. There is a shortage of drinking water. People here are suffering from water shortage and heat. At this time of the year, the wells dry up. There are a lot of dams, but they don’t provide water to villages. All that water is going to the cities.”
Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) categorises 42% of India as ‘abnormally dry’, including regions of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan. This is 6% more than last year.
Amardeep Singh, Director of the Asia-Pacific region of Khalsa Aid, said,
“We are in the Hirdi village located in Trimbakeshwar Tehsil…the situation here, the well has completely dried up and there’s absolutely no water left. The village’s panchayat approached Khalsa Aid. We get 2-4 water tankers daily to fill the well in this village.”
This is not the first time Hooda joined Khalsa Aid for a noble cause. He volunteered to clean up Juhu beach after Ganpati Visarjan in 2017 and also helped the NGO distribute food and other amenities to flood victims in Kerala in 2018.
