CM Meets Union Rural Development Minister

Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje met the Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday at New Delhi. The CM demanded for relaxation in norms for financial support to drinking water supply projects in habitations affected by fluoride and salinity. She said that in view of the special circumstances of the state Rajasthan be granted Rs. 2,232 crore as 50% of the project cost towards central government assistance. Estimated cost of the project is Rs 4,463 crore.

Smt. Raje argued for rethinking on the pattern of central assistance to the projects of supply of water to fluoride-affected habitations. She said that for polluted water regions central assistance should be provided in total for creating basic infrastructure for projects as the scale of assistance considering one person a unit was not practical.

The CM said that state government was running surface drinking water schemes for 15,180 habitations in the state by spending Rs. 15,470 crore. Of these, 2,649 habitations are affected by fluoride. Till September 2016, about Rs. 9,000 crore were due towards these schemes and another Rs 5,000 crore for other schemes. She said that the central government must resume its assistance, which had been stopped, for all such schemes. She suggested that making safe drinking water available to remote areas in Rajasthan was a tough task as about 30% of the water pollution affected habitations of the country were situated in Rajasthan. Here 6,858 habitations were affected by fluoride, 13,007 by salinity, 1,042 by nitrate and 12 habitations were affected by iron-content pollution, she added.

Drawing a parallel with West Bengal Smt. Raje suggested that the Union Ministry provided Rs. 8,000 crore for drinking water to this state. Considering similarities, Rajasthan be provided central assistance for drinking water as a special state.

On this, the Union Minister Shri Tomar assured the CM of affirmative action on the state’s demands for relaxation in norms for central assistance considering Rajsathan’s special circumstances.

Rajasthan’s Public Health and Engineering Department Minister Smt. Kiran Maheshwari, Principal Secretary PHED Shri JC Mahanti, Resident Commissioner of Rajsathan Shri Rohit Kumar and other senior officials attended the meeting.

Jaipur/New Delhi, 27th October 2016