Looks like the country's premier weather forecaster, which rarely seems to get it right, is under a cloud this season.
Sattar Patel, a farmer in Latur district in the state, has filed a complaint with the local police against the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) for getting monsoon predictions wrong.
Sattar and his fellow farmers, who approached the Murud police station on Monday, are demanding that the Met department be booked under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The growers claim its faulty forecasts have piled up losses for them.
The police say they have taken note of the matter.
Patel, like many other farmers in Bhise Wagholi village in the district, had planned his sowing for the season according to the IMD predictions. But it has all come to naught, he rues.
"The IMD predicted 97% showers for this season. Going by that, all of us sowed seeds right in the first rains, said Patel.
"But there are no rains yet. The whole land remains parched. If they had not made such predictions, we farmers would not have started sowing so expansively," said Patel.
He blamed the weather department for the "miserable state we are in".
Patel owns a plot of ten acres in the village.
"I had sown soya bean for the season. It drizzled a little in the beginning but later, the area didn't get any rains," said Patel.
Patel once again tilled the land, with a tractor, but it has borne no fruit.
Tattyarao Bhalerao, assistant inspector at Murud police station, said: "We have taken the farmers' issue into consideration. We will have further consultation with our seniors and accordingly take a decision."
Source - DNA