M A I N   N E W S

Scam in water supply schemes
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

MOONAK (Sangrur), Feb 4 — It is not only the state coffers that have gone dry, even the taps have dried up.

The existing drinking water supply schemes and the proposed ones are in a jeopardy due to paucity of funds. The financial health of the Public Health department, entrusted with the task of drinking water supply in rural areas, is in such a bad shape that it has no funds to meet its routine essential expenditure.

In fact the department is under liability — over Rs 30 crore. Repeated delay in the payment of canal water charges, repairs, and in payment of power bills have tarnished the department’s image.

A senior functionary of the department told TNS: “We have lost face due to such a heavy amount of liabilities. Those having dues against the department virtually try to grab us”.

The hope of getting funds to the tune of Rs 607 crore from the World Bank has also vanished. The bank had approved a project in 1995 for five years. However, it withdrew the project recently following the government led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal resorting to freak populism.

“The state, which can give free power and water to farmers, does not deserve loan from the World Bank”. This was the curt reply of World Bank officials to the Punjab Government. Mr Badal and senior officers of his government tried their best to convince the bank officials that the state would levy charges and there would be no more freebies for anyone.

However, not convinced by oral assurance, they told the state government to bring the documents first to prove that charges have been levied. They waited for six months after the actual lapse of the project. The bank officials closed the chapter as the government did not fulfil their conditions. A top government official said the bank was even prepared to give Rs 1500 crore but it wanted an undertaking in black and white that there would be “no free lunch for consumers”.

The department has abandoned some water supply schemes and a few of these have been handed over to the Central Ground Water Board for installing tubewells. The board takes nominal charges from the state governments for installing tubewells at the places where it wanted to conduct a survey for inspecting the quality of water and its level.

As most of these schemes were set up in early eighties, the population of the villages covered by such schemes have gone up manifold since then. The need of the hour is to augment about 2,000 schemes and there are nearly 1,500 villages which are declared as problem ones but having no schemes. An amount of Rs 1,000 crore is required for the purpose. The Central Government has fixed a new norm for supplying 100 LPCD (litre per capita per day) which is to be implemented by year 2002. At present at most places people get water supply between 0 and 20 LCPD against the unrevised norm of 40 LPCD.

There is a big scandal as regards setting up water supply schemes at certain places. A visit by a TNS team to one of such schemes at Badalgarh village, near here, proved too revealing.

Although the water supply scheme was set up at the Badalgarh village nearly 12 years ago not a drop of water has been supplied from the scheme since its inception to residents of Badalgarh and three other villages — Rajal Heri, Dudian and Chergarh — which were to be covered by it. Obviously lakhs of rupees were spent on the construction of one big water tank, five wells and one operator’s room and machinery to run the scheme.

It was not viable in any case. Who conceived and executed it deserved to be taken to task. It was canal-water based scheme. Water from a nearby water course was to be stored in the tank. From there it was to be supplied to the villagers after filtration. However, as the water course remains dry most of the time in a year, it was not possible to supply water to the people even for six months in one year.

More over as water from the water course to the tank was to be brought in a paved channel, residents of Badalgarh refused to take the supply from the scheme. Ultimately it has to be abandoned.

The interesting the most curious part of the story is that though residents of Badalgarh were not supplied even a drop of water from the scheme, officials concerned had laid supply pipes in nearby Rajalheri and Dudian villages 12 year ago. The pipes still remain buried underground. When water will flow into these these pipes no one can say.

Even stand posts (community water supply taps) were installed in the Rajalheri village. These are being used for tying buffaloes. The sarpanch of the village, Mr Sukhjinder Singh told TNS that he had met the Deputy Commissioner at at “sangar darshan” programme held recently in Balre village. He brought to the DC’s notice the water supply scheme. The DC promised action. But nothing tangible has emerged.

The same is fate of other nearby water supply schemes at Changaliwala, Amirgarh, Chotti Buttal. Bahamniwala. Bhaike pishore, Alampur, Gobindgarh Jejian and Sekhuwas, etc. Some of the schemes are expected to be adopted by the board for the installation of tubewells.

Admitting that a “raw deal has been given to rural water supply schemes by the state government”, a senior functionary of the government said the annual maintenance and running costs of the rural water supply schemes was around Rs 68 crore but the revenue from the schemes to the department was less than Rs 10 crore. A proposal to mop up revenue by increasing the charges and levying indirect water charges has been mooted. Already charges for private tap connections have been raised from Rs 20 to Rs 30 a month.

The total number of schemes is 2,454 and nearly 7000 villages are covered by it. But Bet, kandi and border areas are the worst-hit due unavailabilty of pure drinking water. The Narot Jaimal Singh and the Baimal areaa near Pathankot are critical areas where pure drinking water is not available at all.