Cut in funds to affect water & sanitation ministry plans:Panel

A Parliamentary panel today expressed serious concern over "drastic" cuts in budgetary allocation of Drinking Water and Sanitation ministry, saying the reduction will have an "adverse" impact on two schemes which aim at providing safe drinking water and achieve 100 per cent sanitation in rural areas.
Standing Committee on Rural Development which submitted its Demand for Grants 2015-16 report for Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Lok Sabha also recommended the Ministry to approach the Niti Ayog and Finance Ministry with "apt" justifications to ensure allocation of funds.
"The committee expresses serious concern over the drastic reduction in the budgetary allocation for the current financial year which is Rs 12,100 crore less than the Revised Estimates (RE) of the previous year 2014-15," the committee chaired by P Venugopal said.

The two major centrally sponsored schemes are the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin (SBM-G) through which support is extended to states to provide safe drinking water in rural areas and achieving 100 per cent rural sanitation coverage by 2019.
The committee expressed its "surprise" that against the total proposed outlay of Rs 1,66,686 crore (Rs 1,22,570 crore for NRDWP and Rs 44,116 crore for SBM-G) for the 12th Five Year Plan, only Rs 1,05,945 crore (Rs 68,786 crore for NRDWP and Rs 37,159 for SBM-G) was allocated.
The panel noted that the allocation of Rs 5,236 crore in the plan head during the current financial year is only 4.94 per cent of the 12th Plan allocation.

"The committee finds the budgetary allocation of Rs 5,236 crore quite inadequate to meet the requirements and feel that this would definitely have an adverse impact on NRDWP and SBM-G and as a result, millions of people living in rural areas of the country will be affected," it said.

The panel in its report said that the meagre allocation of Rs 5,236 crore does not commensurate with the "herculean" task of providing safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to millions of rural population.
The committee also expressed "apprehension" that attainment of objectives of providing safe drinking water and open defecation-free rural areas will remain a "distant" dream until sufficient funds are allocated to the Ministry.

"The committee therefore strongly recommends the Ministry to approach the Niti Ayog and Ministry of Finance with apt justifications to ensure allocation of additional funds for the current financial year so that future development plans are not hampered and the targets fixed are achieved on time," it said.
The scrutiny of Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation also revealed substantial reduction of allocation at RE stage and failure of the department to fully utilise even the reduced allocations over the last few years.