Concession period for private water connection extended

Chandigarh, Nov 29 (UNI) The Haryana government has extended the period of scheme to provide concession on connection fee for private water connections to the general category households upto November 19, 2008.

Announcing this here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that to encourage private water connections in general category households, connection fee of Rs 500 in the villages and Rs 1000 in the urban areas was waived off under the Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme.

He said that under the scheme, which was launched on November 19, 2006, private water connections were provided to as many as 19,954 scheduled castes households.

The programme envisaged the provision of providing free water connections to all the scheduled castes household in rural and urban areas within a period of three years.

Mr Hooda said that another four lakh scheduled castes households would be provided private water connection during the current financial year. A provision of Rs 15,500 lakh had been made for this purpose, out of which 14,500 lakh would be spent in the rural areas and Rs 1,000 lakh in urban areas.

The Chief Minister said that the objective of the scheme was to provide private water connections to 100 per cent households in the state, thereby improving their quality of life and to extend facility of private water connection in rural areas at par with urban areas.

He said that the scheme would also gradually reduce 5 lakh public stand posts to ensure that water reaches each and every household. At present about 70 per cent of the water being supplied through public stand posts. The scheme would bring great relief to the women folk who had to fetch water from the public stand posts, he added.

UNI