World Bank loan to Punjab for improving rural water and sanitation service

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 26
The World Bank (WB) approved a $248 million (Rs. 1540 crore) loan for the $354 million (Rs. 2200 crore) ‘Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Sector Improvement Project’ in Washington on Tuesday to help the state significantly improve its delivery of water and sanitation services as well as reduce open defecation to improve the quality of life in rural Punjab.
It may be recalled that of Rs.2200 crore, the World Bank would contribute Rs.1540 crore and the state government Rs.660 crore in the ratio of its share 70:30.
The project would aim for a water connection and a toilet for every rural household by end of the project period, which would be a first for any state in India.
According to the press release issued by the World Bank, the said project will also include a minimum of 10 hours of water supply daily, a toilet for all those household without a toilet, sewerage systems in over 315 villages and supply safe water from surface water to over 121 villages that are currently drinking water contaminated with uranium and other heavy metals which are causing serious illnesses like cancer. The project will help the government’s water department to reorganize and focus on service delivery.
Today, only 31 percent of the 167 million rural households in India have access to tap water and domestic toilets (Census 2011). About 67 percent of the rural population continues to defecate in the open and India accounts for about 50 percent of the world’s open defecation. The project is expected to directly benefit an estimated 8.47 million rural people in Punjab, including over 4 million female beneficiaries and 2.44 million beneficiaries belonging to the scheduled castes. It will also support the water quality affected districts in the state.
While Punjab has high coverage for water (95 percent) and sanitation (71.0 percent), the rural water and sanitation sector in the state still continues to face major challenges. A large number of water supply schemes are serving only a limited population with house connections. The rapidly deteriorating water quality in the state is also leading to serious health problems. Roughly 29 percent of water supply schemes face water quality issues.
The project which will be implemented over a six-year period will support the government in addressing these challenges. It will help reorganize the department of water supply and sanitation to focus on service delivery rather than on asset creation through minor upgrades for improving efficiency, free house connections; progressively scale up service levels to achieve 100 percent meter connections for all rural households with at least 10 hours of daily supply with volumetric based charging; and encourage toilet construction. Special focus will be on schemes that are underperforming in order to build their capacity and ownership. These "low cost and high impact" activities are expected to benefit women and children who are otherwise responsible for daily water collection and storage.
"Over four million women in Punjab, who today bear the burden of securing daily water supplies and deal with poor sanitation facilities, will benefit from this project. They will have access to more reliable and better quality water supply and sanitation facilities in their own households," said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director for India. "The project will reduce the time spent by women in collecting water, which they can now use in other productive ways."
Today, the quality of water in Punjab is among the worst when compared to other Indian states. Of the 9,096 schemes tested, 1,717 failed due to the presence of uranium and other heavy metals, and 891 do not meet basic parameters. The project will strengthen water quality monitoring methods and develop mitigation measures. It will finance cost-effective retrofitting of water schemes with engineering solutions to treat arsenic, fluoride, and iron in some 121 villages and construct surface water supply schemes to supply safe drinking water in districts such as Moga and Barnala where most of the villages are affected by uranium and other heavy metals. These district-wide schemes will treat water from good surface sources like large canals and deliver the treated water to the village boundary for internal distribution by the gram panchayat water supply and sanitation committee.
Over 625,000 households in the state still lack toilets. The sanitation component will provide a subsidy to every toilet-less household to construct a toilet coupled with information, education, and communication (IEC) to trigger the behavioral change necessary to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status at the village level.
"The World Bank has been supporting the government of India in piloting and scaling up RWSS Programs since 1991, contributing more than $1.4 billion and benefitting about 24 million rural households in over 15,000 villages. The earlier World Bank-supported Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project has demonstrated that higher levels of service were possible in rural India, including over 10 hours of supply in 109 villages in Punjab, 24x7 supply in 90 villages and a large number of schemes with 100% connections are being managed by local community groups recovering full costs. Despite these achievements, Punjab continues to face major challenges in the water and sanitation sector. This project aims to strengthen the decentralization processes initiated under the previous project and provide better services," said Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist and the project’s task team leader.
The loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 5-year grace period, and a maturity of 18 years.
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PM's assurance to Badal in solving Punjab issues

HUSSAINIWALA (FEROZEPUR), MARCH 23
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today assured Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that the Government of India (GoI) would take every possible step for solving the issues concerning the state besides giving further fillip to the ongoing development of the state.
Addressing the massive gathering during a national level function to observe the Martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Aazam Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru here today, the Prime Minister, while recalling his strong ‘blood relation’ with Punjab, said that every effort would be made to ensure the overall development of the state and prosperity of its people. Mr. Modi said that he would sit with the Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal and chalk out the strategy to sort out the issues raised by him.
The Prime Minister said that he was highly indebted to Punjab for giving him wide political and social experience during his stay in the state for over two decades. Describing Mr. Badal as the senior most politician of the country, who was highly revered and loved by the people of Punjab, the Prime Minister said that he was honored to have been politically groomed by Mr. Badal, who was one of the most visionary politicians of the country, during his stay in the state.
Announcing a slew of incentives for the state, the Prime Minister announced that GoI has decided to enhance the allocation of state under the next five year plan to Rs 54000 crore instead of existing Rs 20000 crore. Likewise, he said that the allocation for development of the urban local bodies and Panchayat bodies has been enhanced to Rs 6000 crore annually from existing Rs 4000 crore. As a tribute to legendary martyr Shaheed-e-Aazam Bhagat Singh, Mr. Modi also announced to name the upcoming Horticulture research at Amritsar on the name of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Expressing concern over the depleting water table in the state, the Prime Minister, while coining the slogan of ‘per drop, more crop, exhorted the farmers to adopt scientific ways and means like use of Sprinkle irrigation for enhancing their yield. Likewise, he called upon the farmers to make minimum use of fertilizers for maintain the soil health of their farms. Mr. Modi also asked the farmers to make optimum utilization of soil health card scheme initiated by the Union Government for welfare of the farmers. The Prime Minister also assured the farmers that the Union government was sympathetically looking into the possibility of compensating the farmers affected by the recent hailstorm.
Earlier in his address, the Chief Minister batted for the opening of trade through Hussainiwala and Sadki borders in the state for promoting economic activity in the region. He said that the border towns of the state were the most prosperous towns of Punjab but the partition of the country had inflicted a serious blow to these towns. Citing the example of Ferozepur town, Mr. Badal said that once this city witnessed tremendous activity but now it almost gave a deserted look. "With the opening of these borders the economy of state will get a major boost thereby resulting in the prosperity of its people" he added.
Dwelling on another issue, the Chief Minister urged Mr. Modi to take up the issue of bringing the list of items traded through the Attari border at par with those exported through the Mumbai-Karachi sea route. He also impressed upon the Prime Minister evolve a special scheme for developing the border areas/ cities of the state so that the brave people of border areas could get their due. Mr. Badal also urged the Prime Minister to restart the special scheme for providing special relief to the farmers having land across the border.

The Chief Minister also said that ever since coming to power in 2007 their government has been following a pro-farmer policy of land acquisition, which should be replicated at the national level. He said that the state government had acquired every inch of land for the development projects with the express consent of the farmers. Mr. Badal also advocated that the GoI should give free hand to the states regarding the acquisition of land both for the state and union projects.
Batting for remunerative Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the farmers, the Chief Minister said that it was the need of the hour to combat the current agrarian crisis. He said that in order to promote the crop diversification in the state, the Union government should also provide MSP to the alternative crops. Mr. Badal also sought upward revision in the compensation for natural disaster to the farmers as the existing sum was meager and inadequate. "The hard working and resilient farmers of the state must be given their due in recognition to their immense contribution for making the country self reliant in food production" he added.
Earlier paying floral tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, the Chief Minister said that these great sons of the soil had laid down their life for emancipating the country from the shackles of foreign imperialism. However, he said that dreams of these martyrs still remain unfulfilled as the country was confronting a number of social maladies. Mr. Badal said that it was a matter of great pride and satisfaction for him that the newly constituted NDA government at centre was giving due recognition to the immense contribution of these martyrs.
Listing the spectacular achievements of the NDA government in a short span of time, the Chief Minister said that the GoI under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Mr. Modi have taken path breaking initiatives for ensuring the progress and growth of the country. Mr. Badal lauded the Prime Minister for ushering in an era of cooperative federalism in the country aimed at giving more powers to the state. He said that due to the far sighted approach of Mr. Modi the states were getting more share in the devolution of central taxes.
The Chief Minister said that with the formation of NITI Aayog at the centre a new ray of hope has emerged for the all-round development of the states. "The time has come when the Chief Ministers of the states will have more say in the formulation of policies aimed at welfare of the people" added Mr. Badal.
The Chief Minister also lauded the Prime Minister for choosing Sri Amritsar Sahib as heritage city under the HRIDAY scheme. He said that under the scheme the city would get several hundred crores of Rupees for its development. Mr. Badal also thanked the Prime Minister for including Jallianwala Bagh among Cultural World Heritage Site to receive special assistance for improving the infrastructure. He also lauded the NDA government for allocating prestigious projects like All India Institute of Medical Science, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Post Graduate Horticulture Research and Educational Institute. "This is the first time ever since independence that a Central government has demonstrated a special concern for the patriotic people of Punjab" he added.
While welcoming the Prime Minister, state BJP President Mr. Kamal Sharma lauded him ensuring the overall development of the country. He said that Mr. Modi has made the entire country feel proud by taking unprecedented steps aimed the development of the country and prosperity of its people.
Earlier the Prime Minister and Mr. Badal paid homage at the samadhis of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, BK Dutt and Rajmata Vidyawati. Mr. Modi also felicitated the members of families of these martyrs.
Prominent amongst other present on the occasion included Union Food Processing Minister Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment Mr. Vijay Sampla, Cabinet Ministers Jathedar Tota Singh, Mr. Chunni Lal Bhagat and Mr. Janmeja Singh Sekhon and Lok Sabha MP Mr. Sher Singh Ghubaya.  

Budget to give new thrust to development: Sukhbir Badal



CHANDIGARH, MARCH 18
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today congratulated Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa for the fiscal turn around achieved by the State along with the new thrust given to development and social welfare.
In a statement the Deputy Chief Minister also lauded the FM for adopting fiscal measures that has resulted in an 10.16 percent growth in gross state domestic product (GSDP) at for fiscal year 2014-15.
The Deputy CM said the State had also achieved fiscal consolidation as fiscal deficit had came down from 3.45 percent of GSDP in 2006-07 to 2.77 percent of GSDP in 2013-14 and was estimated at 2.97% of GSDP in 2014-15. He said it was the Parkash Singh Badal led SAD-BJP government that he adopted innovative measures to achieve 16 percent growth in own revenue collection besides adopting diligent efforts to keep the debt within manageable limits. He said the outstanding debt to GSDP ratio was pegged at 32.27 percent for the year 2014- 15, well ahead of the target of 38.7 percent set by the Finance Commission.
Highlighting the emphasis laid by Punjab government on development, Mr. Badal said that for 2013-14, the percentage of developmental expenditure to the total expenditure of the State was 52.24 percent which substantially improved to 55.39 percent in 2014-15. He said Punjab would witness further increase in pace of growth in coming year as this budget has set aside Rs. 600 crore for "Mukh Mantri Pendu Vikas Yojna" besides initiating "Punjab Urban Development Mission" to ensure 100 percent water supply, sewerage, road and street lights in urban areas.
Deputy CM said that this budget also purposed for an Entrepreneurship Development Programme to alleviate the financing difficulties being faced by the micro and small entrepreneurs. He further added that Rs. 500 crore has been allocated in the budget to setup 2174 Sewa Kendras in the state to provide citizen centric services to its citizen at their door steps.
Highlighting the importance given to sports in the budget, Mr. Badal said that following the ‘Catch them Young’ rule Government has established Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS). He said that around 6000 budding players will be identified from all over the state and will be trained in these Centres of Excellence created in different parts of the State. He said that budget also has provision of dedicated fund of Rs. 50 Crore annually for PIS besides setting up of stadiums at block levels.
Describing Industry as backbone of any economy, Mr. Badal said that Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion (PBIP) has received 153 proposals with proposed investment of about Rs 9600 crore. He said that allocation of Rs 100 crore for ‘Entrepreneurship Development Programme’ would encourage small scale industry in the state.
Talking about skill development, Mr. Badal said that the state has purposed to invest Rs. 200 Crore on "Empowered State Skill Development Mission". He said that under this programme 2000 skill training centres for girls and 500 centres for boys would be setup in the villages in the existing infrastructure of Government schools and other buildings at village level.
Declaring budget a gift for agricultural sector, Mr. Badal said that Rs 3512 crores has been allocated to strengthen the agriculture and allied sectors in the State besides keeping Rs. 1005 crore for developing irrigation facilities.
Enlisting the features of budget concerning social welfare, Mr. Badal said that keeping Welfare of SCs, BCs and minorities on the top priority Rs 1173 crore have been allocated for welfare of SC, BC’s and minorities. He further added that the increasing the plan outlay under this head from Rs 819 crore in the annual plan 2014-15 to Rs 984 crore in 2015-16 reflected the SAD-BJP government’s commitment of development for all.
Mr. Badal said that the way this budget gave importance to women empowerment by setting aside Rs 11 crore for `Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Campaign’ besides focusing on basic sectors like education and health was appreciable.

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