Dismayed that adequate and safe drinking water for remote areas of the country could not be provided despite a massive investment of Rs 1.65 lakh crore since independence, a Parliamentary Panel has sought the Government to fix a timeline for availability of potable water in all rural parts.
In its second report presented in Lok Sabha today, the Committee on Estimates on Evaluation of Rural Drinking Water Programme pertaining to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation also recommended that the Government fix the norms of potable water availability for semi-urban and rural areas, and timeline by which the envisaged quality and quantity of potable water would be made available to all rural parts and regions of the country.
Keeping in view the dismal potable water supply scenario, depleting water table, rising dark blocks, acute power shortages affecting water supply and unreliable system of collecting and monitoring vital data regarding the drinking water supply programme, the Committee recommended that a complete reorientation of the role and strategy of the Union Government was essential to make the scheme a success.
Further, a system of concurrent and continuous monitoring and evaluation needs to be put in place, it added.
The Committee also sought the Government to come up with a 'White paper' on their efforts made so far in the light of recommendations made by Bhor Committee, 1949.
