Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Central Government for supplying poor quality water to railway passengers and staff living in railway colonies. The High Court has sought improvements in the quality of drinking water in Indian Railways and a probe into the alleged irregularities while awarding contracts to the chlorination plants for supply of water.
The Delhi Jal Board has discontinued the Aam Aadmi Party's free water policy from April 1 and has hiked the water tariff by 10%. Earlier in January, the AAP government, after coming to power, had launched the scheme to provide 20,000 litres of free water to each household in Delhi with piped water connections. DJB has discontinued the scheme due to lack of funds.
The Rajasthan government is planning to set up 1,000 RO plants in the state to provide clean drinking water to rural areas. Under the scheme, the government plans to supply 40 litres of RO purified drinking water to each rural household at the cost of 10 paisa per litre. The plants will be functional from this summer in order to reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases prevelant during the season.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Andhra Pradesh state election campaign committee has proposed running all agriculture pump sets on solar power in two years. The commitment is in contrast to the free electricity promise that all the other political parties in the state are making to the farmers. AAP has also assured a stable income to the farmers by establishing on-farm and agriculture-based enterprises.
Lack of water is the main concern for people in Tamil Nadu, according to a nationwide survey done by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Though the state government has roped in money in a series of schemes on water conservation, people have observed that none of these schemes have been implemented. For example, the Cooum clean up project. Even the political parties in the state feel that drinking water shortage will have an effect on the votes this election.
This is a weekly roundup of policy matters from March 30-April 5, 2014. Also read last week's news roundup.