In the five years under audit, the Union and state governments budgeted Rs 89,956 crore or close to Rs 900 billion for about 1.2 million schemes.
The CAG audit finds that coverage of rural habitations increased by only 8 per cent at 40 lpcd and 5.5 per cent on the basis of 55 lpcd during 2012-17.
Instead of 100 per cent coverage as planned, “44 per cent of rural habitations and 85 per cent of government schools and anganwadis provided access to safe drinking water”.
Similarly, instead of the 50 per cent target, only 18 per cent of rural population was provided potable drinking water through pipes and only 17 per cent of rural households were given household connections.
“While the percentage of fully covered rural habitations to the total habitations with 40 lpcd increased from 69 (2013) to 77 per cent (2017), the coverage increased from 39 per cent in April 2013 to 44 per cent in April 2017 based on the norms of 55 lpcd,” says the audit report.
2,212.44 crore.” Under the programme, every village has to have a water security plan besides similar plans at district and state levels to not only target the programme effectively but also involve local communities for sustainable management of structures created.
But 21 states have not prepared such plans showing a fundamental failure in implementation of the scheme.
The National Drinking Water and Sanitation Council (NDWSC), set up in 2010, that is supposed to be the nodal body to coordinate the scheme between the Union ministries and the state governments for speedy implementation.
Now, CAG says given this state of implementation, India might not meet the Sustainable Development Goals on drinking water coverage by 2030.
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