Piped water for all rural households by 2022: Capt

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday said the state was all set to provide piped water connections to all rural households by 2022.

In a video-conference with Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Chief Minister said that as of April 1, 2020, of the 1,634 habitations in which groundwater was impacted, 477 had been provided potable water, and the state was committed to provide all rural households with piped water by March 2022. This was in line with the target of the Punjab Government even before the conceptualisation of the Jal Jiwan Mission (JJM) by the Centre.

The Chief Minister sought reduction in GST on treatment plants as well as purification media from the current 18 per cent to 5 per cent, in order to make the JJM schemes sustainable in the long run.

Captain Amarinder also urged the Union Minister to recognise the 1,449 kandi villages as `hill areas’ to reduce the beneficiary contribution, from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, for construction.

On the issue of the kandi villages, the Chief Minister said the state government had been repeatedly raising the subject with the Government of India for the past two years, but no action had yet been taken. These villages were akin to neighbouring HP areas, which were receiving funding on a 90:10 sharing basis, with beneficiaries residing there required to contribute only 5 per cent towards the cost of the scheme, he said.

Regarding the status of universal coverage of piped water supply in the state, he said as of April 1, 2020, 17.48 lakh households had been covered. Of the remaining 17.59 lakh households, 7.60 lakh were proposed to be covered in 2020-21, and the remaining in 2021-22.