Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government was working towards finding a permanent solution for drought, which is affecting several parts of the country. “We are working on a big [irrigation] scheme to bring water to farmlands,” he said at an election rally in Rangia, Assam.

The prime minister further said that the East India, including Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and the Northeast, will see a second agricultural revolution. He also attacked the Congress, the ruling party in Assam, saying the state suffered from a shortage of drinking water despite having a river like Brahmaputra flow through it, PTI reported.

With temperatures soaring, the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and parts of northern Karnataka and south-western Uttar Pradesh are facing a severe water crisis, leading to a rise in the number of farmers’ suicides.