The discrimination to access water resources in Chhattisgarh has resulted in a bizarre situation in which one field in the state is lush green while the others have parched lands.

Like thousands of farmers across Chhattisgarh, Manoj too has had one of the cruelest and longest summers this year; almost his entire crop is destroyed, burnt by the scorching sun.

This is in stark contrast to the lush greenery of one field in Matwaari village, which belongs to a local MLA, Pratima Chandrakar. Her crop got water from the local canal, which the rest of the village was deprived of.

According to Manoj, "They don't even let us touch the water. They tell us that we cannot take this water."

Kishori Lal, another farmer said, "They have all possible water resources. There are borewells everywhere. But we farmers get nothing."

But Chandrakar says the allegations are untrue and that her crops survived because her fields have borewells.

Chandrakar, Congress MLA, claimed, "Every village that is close to a water source gets water, but the ones that are far away do not get this water. But these are all allegations that they are being prevented from taking water."

But the villagers say not only are they not allowed to use the canal's water. And there is no one to hear their complaints.

Kishori Lal, said, "Even if we complain, nothing ever gets done here. No action is taken against those people."

Local officials say they have not received any such complaints. I C P Keshri, Collector, Chhattisgarh, remarked, "We have no information that the canal is used for only one field, anyway it is not possible."

But this declaration of equality sounds empty to the people of Matwaari who only understand one thing that while their children will face starvation this year, there is one field in the village which managed to beat the drought.