|
Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister of Rural Development has said that every effort will be made to attain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in respect of Rural Drinking Water Supply(DWS) and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in the country. The Minister was chairing the Consultative Committee meeting today in New Delhi. He said under the 10th Plan target has been fixed for consolidated coverage of all habitations with safe drinking water by 2007. Besides, slippage in coverage will also be tackled in attaining these goals through participatory approach by involving Panchayati Raj Institutions. He also said that the primary objectives are to ensure coverage of all rural habitations especially to reach the un-reached with access to safe drinking water; to ensure sustainability of the systems and sources; and to tackle the water quality problems in affected habitations. He further elaborated that norms which are being adopted for providing drinking water to rural population in the habitations are: 40 litres per capita per day (lpcd); 30 lpcd additional for cattle in Desert Development Programme (DDP) areas; one hand pump/stand post for every 250 persons; potable water source within 1.6 km in plains or 100 mtrs. elevation in hilly areas; and in fully covered States, relaxed norms of 55 lpcd with a source within 0.5 km/50 meters elevation subject to capital cost sharing by beneficiaries.
The Ministry also made a presentation about various schemes on DWS before the member of the Consultative Committee. The presentation highlighted the focus on the current issues and initiatives taken by the Government. The current issues included scaling up of TSC projects in all districts of the country by 2005-06; bridging the funding gap in the Central share of funds for scaling up TSC projects to all districts; according higher priority and visibility to sanitation programmes – celebration of Sanitation Day, popularizing Nirmal Gram Puruskar etc; inter-sectoral coordination for covering schools, Anganwadis and accelerating achievement of MDGs in rural sanitation. The government initiatives included approach that total sanitation campaign will be demand driven and participatory approach will be adopted; the greater emphasis will be on attitudes and behavioral change through Information, Education and Communication; there will be shift in the total sanitation campaign from high to low subsidy with a range of technological options; district will be designated as implementation unit and incentives will be given to poorest of the poor and the community.
The members gave valuable suggestions in improving the implementation of the DWS and the total sanitation campaign. The suggestions included that MP LAD Scheme should be dovetailed with the Swajaldhara Programme to facilitate the communities contribution in the scheme. It was also suggested that incase of SCs and STs and tribal areas the community’s contribution should be met by the Central Government. It was also suggested that after implementation of the programme the scheme should have an in-built mechanism to take care of the maintenance of the rural drinking water schemes particularly functioning of the hand pumps. It was also suggested a survey should be undertaken by the Government to assess the slipped back areas to bring these into covered area or partially covered area. Some of the MPs from far flung areas like Ladakh, Nagaland and Kerala stressed the need for bringing flexibility in the guidelines of the Rural Drinking Water Scheme and Total Sanitation Campaign for better implementation of these schemes. MP from Andhra Pradesh stressed the need for publicity campaign as the TSC needs value change in the mind set of the rural population. It will also be very useful in sensitizing rural population about the ill effects of the unsafe water.
In response to the suggestions made by the Members of Parliament the Minister made it clear that State Governments cooperation is pre-requisite for success of these schemes. He said that he will take it up with Dept. of Programme Implementation to amend the guidelines of the MPLAD Scheme in view of the suggestions made by the members of the committee. The Minister also expressed his concern that so far as repairing of hand pumps etc are concerned the funds provided may be insufficient and therefore he said that he will also try for enhancement of the budget provision in this regard. So far as the data regarding slipped back partially covered and non covered areas under Drinking Water Supply Schemes are concerned, he informed the committee that Indian Institute of Public Administration has been entrusted to conduct a fresh survey for the whole country on this issue so that a comprehensive view is taken in this regard.
S/Shri Madhusudan D. Mistry, Aruna Kumar Vundavalli, Kailash Joshi, Smt. Rupatai Diliprao N. Patil, A.V. Bellarmin, Sukhdev Singh Libra, Shailendra Kumar, Thupstan Chhewang and Sugrib Singh Members from Lok Sabha and S/Shri Jayanta Bhattacharya, Vikram Verma, Indramoni Bora, and T.T.V. Dhinakaran Members from Rajya Sabha attended the Consultative Committee meeting. Smt. Suryakanta Patil and Shri A Narendra, Ministers of State in the Ministry of Rural Development also attended the meeting. Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister of Rural Development thanked the members of the Consultative Committee and officials present in the meeting.
HB/AKS/GK
|
