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Swachh Bharat Mission!
NEW DELHI: What Swachh Bharat was for Modi 1.0, an ambitious programme of piped water to all willing households in rural areas might be for Modi 2.0. The government is poised to launch a massive effort to provide piped drinking water with issues of water supply and conservation given a sharper focus with the creation of a new ministry of jal shakti.
While the Modi government nearly completed a plan for electricity connections to all households under the Saubhagya programme, the scale of the drinking water challenge is significant even as the Centre looks to put its experience in mission mode implementation to good use.
In his opening remarks at the fifth governing council meeting of government think tank Niti Aayog, PM Narendra Modi said one of the major aims of the Centre's integrated approach to water-related issues under the jal shakti ministry is to provide piped water to every rural home by 2024.
Official data shows that coverage of village households with piped water has annually increased from 12 per cent in 2013-14 to 17 per cent in 2017-2018, highlighting the need to seriously accelerate the programme.
Sources said the challenge to achieve 100 per cent coverage of piped water supply by 2024 is similar to that of increasing the toilet coverage from just 33 per cent in October 2014 to over 99 per cent now.
To spread awareness of water conservation and to check wastage, the government may deploy "jaldoots" (volunteers) on the lines of "swachhdoots" in villages, they added.
The meeting also discussed the drought situation in the country and there were demands to review the disaster relief norms and the Niti Aayog will examine the issue. There was massive emphasis on the issue of water and several states shared their examples.
In closing remarks, the PM said India needs to prioritise and make appropriate interventions to solve its water problems. He said water, conservation and irrigation both require a massive effort based on public participation. Modi said efforts should be made to provide piped water through taps in all villages and urged states to study the best practices in water conservation from other states.
"He said that the newly created jal shakti ministry will help provide an integrated approach to water. He urged states to also integrate their efforts towards water conservation and management," an official release issued by PMO said.
Source (The Times Of India)
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