Madhya Pradesh Government is attaching priority to supply of drinking water through hand-pumps. In view of this, adequate allocation is made in the annual budget for maintenance of handpumps.
There are over 5.20 lakh handpumps in the State. Of these, 4.89 lakh or 93.86 per cent are in working condition. About 32,000 hand-pumps have become defunct due to depletion of ground water level. As many as 1000 contract technicians were deployed for repair of handpumps, each being paid Rs 5,000 per month. The honorarium has been increased to Rs 6,500 per month.
A sum of Rs 77.92 crore has been provisioned in the current year’s budget for proper maintenance, purchase of spare parts, pipes etc. and payment of wages. Of this, Rs 38.96 crore is the State share and remaining is Central share. Against the target of replacing damaged platforms of 30,000 hand-pumps with new ones, 24,068 new platforms have been constructed during year 2013-14.
Hand-pump maintenance work has been brought under the ambit of Public Services Delivery Guarantee Act for ensuring smooth and prompt drinking water supply in rural areas of the State. Besides, complaints regarding out of order hand-pumps are also being redressed through Chief Minister’s Helpline.
A special handpump maintenance drive was undertaken in the state in February this year. Under the campaign, departmental employees had inspected all handpumps and undertaken repairs as per requirement.
The department has set up control rooms since April this year in all its offices for receiving complaints regarding handpumps. Efforts are on to develop an electronic system under which villagers do not have to come to offices for registering complaints about defunct hand-pumps. They can register complaint through SMS.
It may be mentioned that the Public Health Engineering Department ensures drinking water supply through handpumps in small habitats and through piped water schemes in major villages.