Making an important pre-election promise, the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced that drinking water would be made fundamental right of every citizen in case the party comes into power at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha election.
The announcement came from L K Advani, BJP’s Prime-ministerial candidate after his day-long interaction with experts from the fields of water, environment and health on Tuesday. The meeting is part of Advani’s efforts to broad-base party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha election.
Sushma Swaraj, who along with M Venkaiah Niadu, senior party leader, attended the meeting, said that Advani also announced that his government would make equitable distribution of water mandatory, which means fixing a minimum daily quota of water for every citizen.
This idea, Swaraj said, was inspired by the system in South Africa, where the Constitution guaranteed 25 litre of water to each person daily. ''In Delhi alone we have such disparity in water availability that while one corner gets about 550 litre per capita per day the other barely get 30 litres,’’ she said.
The BJP government, Advani said, would also set up a ''Water and Sanitation Mission’’ to be headed by the Prime Minister which would regulate the availability and quality of drinking water in an integrated manner. This mission, he said would undo, the present system where some nine governmental departments were handling the issues related to water.
''The Mission would be responsible for maintaining quality, quantity and delivery of safe drinking water to every citizen,’’ Swaraj said. It would be also responsible for fixing the purity standards for drinking water.
The invitees list to the BJP meeting included such high profile experts like the Nobel Laureate R.K.Pachauri, Sunita Narian, Centre for Science Environment, Anil Baijal, former Home secretary, Vijay Kapoor, former Lt. Governor of Delhi and several experts on health-care and sanitation.
Advani’s interactions with experts and representatives of various fields of economy are aimed at the party taking a lead over the United progressive Alliance (UPA) in projecting his vision for good governance to the people.
Advani has already met farmers, students, industrialists and security experts.
Taking ideas from the experts Advani said his government would use all the technologies to tackle the problems that are leading to shortage of water and its poor quality.
Experts at the meet have pointed out that in Delhi alone 40 per cent of the drinking water supplied through pipes is lost in leakage. ''Small steps would go a long way in tackling shortages and problems related to drinking water.’’ Swaraj said. Cleansing of rivers and recycling of sewage water would be taken on priority basis, she said.
Besides, the Advani-led government would make conservation of water as a fundamental duty of citizens, Swaraj said.
