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Achieve `Bharat Nirman' goals, States told

Special Correspondent

Providing safe drinking water is the priority, says Union Rural Development Minister

NEW DELHI: Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Thursday asked State Governments to ensure timely achievement of the goals set under "Bharat Nirman" for drinking water supply.

Presiding over a review meeting here on the performance of various programmes being implemented with the State Governments here, Mr. Singh said that providing safe drinking water to the common people was the highest priority of the Government.

Accordingly the Budget allocation in the current financial year had been enhanced to Rs 4,050 crores under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) as against Rs 2,900 crores in the previous year.

The meeting was organised by the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission. Nine States and Union Territories --Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh and Delhi -- attended the meeting.

Mr. Singh emphasised that drinking water supply is one of the six components of Bharat Nirman.

The goals envisaged for the scheme provide for cent percent coverage of uncovered and partially covered habitations by the year 2009, tackling water quality problem by the year 2009, coverage of drinking water and sanitation facilities to all the schools by the year 2006-07 and the ensure full coverage of slip back habitations by the year 2009.

The Minister said that apart from availability of water, sustainability was equally important to ensure that the implementing agencies were extra careful in selecting the sites as well as to provide for proper water harvesting mechanisms for recharge of the sources. He advised the State Governments to coordinate effectively various ongoing rural development programmes of the Centre.

Expressing concerns over poor performance of some States, Mr. Singh directed the Department of Drinking Water Supply to set a time frame for activities and asked the State Governments to adhere to the time limits set by the Centre.

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