With the ice broken over the Sadhvi issue, normal business resumed in the Rajya Sabha with the Question Hour taking up some important discussions on river-cleansing, MNREGA, water and sanitation and education.
While Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti said `5,159.81 crore has been released to the States for implementation of pollution abatement works, the Government said over 24 per cent households in the country have access to drinking water from unsafe sources including untreated one from taps and uncovered wells.
Rural Development Minister Birender Singh dismissed suggestions that post offices in some States, particularly in village areas, are vulnerable to being captured by corrupt middlemen thereby denying wages to poor under rural job scheme MNREGA and HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the Government is committed to betterment of secondary and higher education the country.
Bharti said a sewage treatment capacity of about 5,005 million litres per day has also been created so far under NRCP and NGRBA programmes. National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) and National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) programme cover polluted stretches of 42 rivers spread over 21 states at a sanctioned cost of `11,362.85 crore.
Quoting census report 2011, Singh said, “24.4 per cent of households access drinking water from sources that include untreated water from taps, uncovered wells and other sources.”
In a written reply, the Minister informed the Rajya Sabha that as per the census report people from 22.10 per cent of rural households have to travel more than half-a-kilometre for fetching drinking water in rural areas while 8.1 per cent of the urban households have to fetch drinking water from a distance of more than 100 m. Singh said, as per the latest census report, 30.8 per cent of the rural households get their drinking water from taps.
The Government also dismissed suggestions that post offices in some States, particularly in village areas, are vulnerable to being captured by corrupt middlemen thereby denying wages to poor under rural job scheme MNREGA.
The HRD Minister said that the ministry has constituted Council for Industry & Higher Education Collaboration which will identify issues and opportunities and facilitate development of strategies and innovative instruments of collaboration between Industry and Academia and endeavor to mobilize additional resources to support these initiatives.
“Government has commissioned NUEPA to develop a national school standards and school evaluation/assessment framework for the government school sector,” Irani said in a written reply.