Rural drinking water is State subject, Centre supplements efforts

New Delhi, Mar 1 (UNI) Minister of state for Rural Development A Narendra today told the Rajya Sabha that rural drinking water was a State subject and the state governments were responsible for providing drinking water facilities in the rural habitations.

He said that the Central Government, however, supplements the efforts of the state governments in this direction by providing financial support through a Centrally sponsored scheme namely Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) and this programme was in operation in the entire country.

On the question of schemes under Swajaldhara, the Minister informed that 5613 schemes have been completed so far.

Mr Narendra said his Ministry is implementing through the State Governments three major schemes the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) for self employment, the Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) and the National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) for providing wage employment to the rural poor.

including unemployed youth in rural areas of the country.

Besides, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been passed by the Parliament in September, 2005 and his Ministry has issued guidelines to the state governments to launch the schemes under NREGA effective from February 2, 2006 in 200 districts of the country.

On generation of employment, the Minister informed that according to the Planning Commission the recent quinquennial round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on employment and unemployment reveals that employment opportunities in rural areas, on Current Daily Status (CDS) basis, increased from 241.04 million in 1993-94 to 250.89 million in 1999-2000.

However, the higher rate of economic growth may not necessarily result in same rate of increase in employment generation as it depends upon a number of other factors also, he added.

UNI BBS JN RS1442