(a) whether the Government have initiated any steps to check the quality of ground water in many parts in the country;
(b) if so, whether any funds have been allocated to the
State Governments to conduct research in this regard; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES (SMT. BIJOYA CHAKRAVARTY)
(a) Water being a State subject, provision of safe drinking
water supply is the responsibility of the State Governments.
The steps taken by the Union Government to check ground
water pollution in the country includes:-
(i) The Central Ground Water Authority notifies areas from
time to time for control and regulation of ground water
development. So far, it has notified Najafgarh and Mehrauli
blocks of NCT Delhi, Municipal Corporation area of
Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Ghaziabad, Ludhiana city, Diu and
Jhotwara block of Jaipur district, Rajasthan.
(ii) Identification of hand pumps and other structures in
polluted areas where the shallow ground water is not fit for
human consumption and painting them red with warning.
(iii) The Central Ground Water Authority have organised
mass awareness programmes among public, industrialists and
industrial workers regarding pollution and over-extraction
of ground water.
(iv) The Central Ground Water Board and the Central
Pollution Control Board are carrying out the periodic
monitoring of ground water quality in the country.
(v) The Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission is providing
safe drinking water to the rural areas and also providing
contamination removal plants to the States in the water
quality affected areas.
(vi) Central Pollution Control Board has adopted several
measures like directing the industries through State
Pollution Control Boards to limit the discharge of effluent
within the stipulated standards, initiation of scheme to
give assistance to clusters of small scale industrial units
for setting up common effluent treatment plants and taking
up of quality scheme of monitoring in critically polluted
areas.
(b) & (c) The Government of India assists the State
Governments by providing funds under the Accelerated Rural
Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) for coverage of rural
habitations with safe drinking water. The States/Union
Territories can utilise upto 20% of the ARWSP funds for Sub-
Mission programmes meant for tackling quality problems and
sustainability issues in respect of rural dirnking water.
The powers to plan, sanction and implement Sub-Mission
programmes have been delegated to the State Governments with
effect from 01.04.1998. The expenditure for implementation
of Sub-Mission projects is shared between the Central and
States/Union Territories in the ratio of 75:25
Under the newly launched Prime Minister’s Gramodaya
Yojana, rural drinking water is one of the components under
which projects/schemes can also be taken up for tackling
quality problems in affected States/Union Territories.