Won't install any more handpumps, says Ramesh

Stating that central government will now fund only pipe water supply schemes, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today batted for a "paradigm shift" in the way institutions both at the Centre and in states are looking at water supply under the National Drinking Water Programme.

"We will fund only pipe water supply scheme. It is a cut decision. If you want hand pumps, you have the state government's budget. You can't on the one hand say water quality is a problem and then ask us to proliferate the population of hand pumps. It won't go hand in hand," the Minister said here.

"If you want to deal with the problem of iron, chloride, and arsenic on a long-term sustainable basis, I think, this is the only way we can do it," Ramesh told the one-day workshop of the state secretaries in-charge of rural drinking water supply and rural sanitation.

He said the the Centre knew that the move would not go down well with the states, but asserted that it would be implemented at any cost.

Citing that the Centre provides for 45 per cent of total money needed for the implementation of drinking water programme in rural areas, he said, the government was "really not doing any value addition" and "the time has come for us to take very hard decision".