Khabarein
Home Last Updated:  Monday, 9 December 2002 

Gurgaon: The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr.Om Parkash Chautala today urged the Central Government to
provide financial assistance of Rs.350 crore for implementation of a special water supply scheme to to
solve the drinking water problem prevalent in all the villages of Mewat area permanently.
The Chief Minister highlighted this while addressing a meeting regarding the 'Swajaldhara'  Programme
attended by the Public Health Ministers of various States convened under the Chairmanship of Deputy Prime
Minister, Mr. L.K.Advani in New Delhi  today.
Mr. Chautala pointed out that the Mewat area of Haryana was very backward and as many as 497 villages
of this area were facing acute drinking water problems. He specifically mentioned that the water in
this area was saline and there was no permanent drinking water source. He added that a large amount of
money was being spent on providing potable water to this area and there was no way of keeping it fresh for
very long.
The Chief Minister also requested the Central Government to provide immediate emergency relief worth
Rs. three hundred crore to make adequate arrangements for drinking water supply in the districts of Gurgaon,
Faridabad, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Rohtak in Southern Haryana. These districts too, were
facing acute shortage of drinking water and drought like situation had added to the gravity of the problem. This was also the reason why enough water was not available for tubewell based drinking water schemes , besides which canal water was also not available in these areas.

He also stressed that the funds being received by the State for improving drinking water supply in these areas under the Drought Relief Programme was not sufficient, keeping in view these circumstances.
Mr.Chautala suggested that district level sanctioning committees should be made to accord sanction for rural
schemes under the Swajaldhara programme because getting the same sanctions from State level committees
would result in a number of problems. He said that the States should be given the freedom to improve upon the
Swajaldhara scheme keeping in view the special needs of the concerned areas. 

He added that this programme would greatly assist in achieving the target of providing sufficient drinking water in all the rural areas of the country by the end of the year 2004.

Mr. Chautala further said that under the National Agenda for Governance, a target had been set for providing clean drinking water in all the villages of the country. He said that effective steps were being taken by the present Haryana Government for providing adequate drinking water facilities in the State and assured that drinking water supply of 70 litres per person per day would be provided through out the State before the year 2004.