Telangana government’s giant initiative can be a role model for other States in addressing drinking water crisis, said NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Arvind Panagariya. He said that the Aayog will request the Centre to offer funds for the Mission Baghiradha, launched by the Telangana government to provide potable water to every household.
"Drinking water to all is the policy we are looking at. We will sit with the Centre and discuss the policy framework," Panagariya said. "Policy will not allow the Centre to allocate funds to a particular scheme of a state. When 'drinking water to all' is implemented, the Centre will allocate funds to all states under the policy and Telangana will also benefit," the Niti Aayog vice-chairman said. Telangana government’s giant initiative would be a role model for every other States in addressing drinking water crisis in the future, he added.
"The state governments have agreed not to link the poverty line with the process of identifying the poor. It is to be used to track poverty, to study how a person has fared during a particular period - whether he has come above from the below poverty line or not," Panagariya said.
There are two poverty lines defined separately by Rangarajan Committee and Tendulkar committee. Around 29.5 percent of the Indian population lives below the poverty line as defined by the Rangarajan Committee as against 21.9 percent according to Tendulkar committee, he said.
He said that Telangana government’s request to revise the labour and material component in the execution of the works under the employment guarantee scheme from panchayat to district levels is under consideration.
Replying to a query, Pangariya said that the Aayog is working on a policy on loss-making PSUs to see whether the sick units are to be closed or restructured. He said while works on disinvestment are underway, he hoped to speed up the process.
The tracking system adopted to identify the poor by the State governments was discussed in detail, he said that the consultations would help the Centre to ascertain the status of poverty alleviation. The Tendulkar Committee and Ranga Rajan Committee recommendations in tracking the poor were also taken into consideration, he said.
By Premji
