Rs 16cr spent on drinking water survey in 2023 but report still under wraps
In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday, the housing and urban affairs ministry said that Ipsos Research Pvt Ltd, an agency, was engaged during 2022-23 to conduct Pey Jal Survekshan in 485 AMRUT cities "at a cost of Rs 16.96 crore", of which Rs 16.1 crore has been released.
Responding to whether the survey's findings have been released and govt has analysed the report for corrective measures, the ministry said, "The findings were communicated to the states/Union Territories at the workshop held on Nov 22, in New Delhi.
During the workshop, discussions were held and states/UTs were advised to take corrective measures".
The ministry not releasing the survey findings has remained a mystery considering that govt holds similar surveys across sectors to ensure "healthy competition" among states and cities.
Interestingly, on Feb 27, 2024, months after the workshop with states and UTs, the ministry had issued a detailed press release announcing that the "first Pey Jal Survekshan Awards" would be held on March 5, with President Droupadi Murmu scheduled to preside over the event. It said that cities and states would be honoured for excellence in the water sector. In all, 130 awards were to be bestowed, reflecting the accomplishments of cities and states under different categories: gold, silver, and bronze.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
12 minutes ago
- Hans India
PM-KISAN payout helps farmers buy diesel for tractors in State
New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 20th installment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Saturday expressed gratitude, saying the scheme has significantly helped them buy diesel for tractors, and pay wages to labourers. The PM-KISAN scheme has been a crucial support for farmers during difficult times. In Karnataka's Dharwad district, farmers said that the PM-KISAN initiative is making a positive impact on their agricultural activities. The funds help not only in purchasing seeds and fertilisers but also in managing household expenses, including school and college fees for their children. The scheme, launched by the PM Modi government, aims to provide income support to small and marginal farmers across the country. Under PM-KISAN, eligible farmers receive Rs 6,000 annually in three equal installments directly into their bank accounts. Speaking to IANS, farmers shared how the scheme has improved their lives. Nagappa Ganiger, a farmer from Dharwad, said, 'The PM-KISAN scheme has been a great help during tough times. It has enabled me to buy diesel for tractors and pay wages to labourers on time. So far, 20 installments have been credited to my account without fail. I am thankful to Prime Minister Modi.' Another farmer, Basavaraj Gunjal, added, 'With the aim of doubling farmers' income, Prime Minister Modi has introduced several farmer-friendly initiatives. The Rs 6,000 annual support through PM-KISAN has been a real benefit. On behalf of all farmers, I express my sincere thanks to him.'
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Tavleen Singh writes: Trump and his trumpeter
This week I was planning to write about Narendra Modi's image both here and in foreign lands. Readers of this column regularly berate me for writing more often about the Dynasty than the Prime Minister. They charge me with 'hatred' of the Gandhi family and troll me viciously. I was planning to bow to the demands of the box office and comment on Modi's stature at home and abroad. Especially abroad where on the world stage the most powerful leaders today are a collection of clowns, tyrants and brutal warmongers. This subject will have to be postponed for another time because Rahul Gandhi, always irresistible, said something that was so weird and mysterious that I found it hard to ignore. Days after he challenged the Prime Minister to say 'Donald Trump, you are a liar' inside the Lok Sabha, he suddenly found himself on Trump's side. The President of America, as has now been widely reported, said that the Indian economy was dead. A comment that in the eyes of most political analysts was both offensive and foolish but not in the opinion of the Leader of the Opposition. When reporters accosted him outside Parliament House and asked what he thought about Trump's remark, he said, 'But the Indian economy is dead. Trump is right. Everybody knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy…except the Prime Minister and the finance minister.' He added that the BJP had destroyed the Indian economy to help Gautam Adani. Now I am no economist, but you do not need to be one to know that this remark is both bizarre and bewildering. But, very much in keeping with the economic ideas Rahul Gandhi expressed during the election campaign in 2019 when it was Anil Ambani he was obsessed with. Remember those days when he and his sister campaigned with toy fighter jets in their hands to make the point that Modi made money out of buying Rafale jets. Mr. Ambani, in his view, was the launderer of this bribe. This was never established. Never proved. So Ambani was forgotten. To come back, though, to the 'dead Indian economy', may I say that Rahul Gandhi appears not to have any memories of those years when Granny was prime minister and the Indian economy was dead, dead, dead. Ask anyone who lived through those times, and they will tell you what shopping for groceries used to be like. There were shortages of the kind that countries experience only when there has been a war or a massive natural disaster. We queued and queued and queued. Daily necessities like bread, milk and sugar were always in short supply. And, when it came to 'luxuries' like cars, you could remain in the queue for ten years. The richest Indians did not dare invest for the fear that if they exceeded their quotas to produce cars, scooters and air-conditioners, they could be fined and sometimes jailed. The only businessmen who thrived in those times were smugglers. They smuggled in gold and household goods like toasters, irons, kettles, coffee makers and mixers and sold them for a huge profit. As for us ladies, we would sneak off to smugglers in Karol Bagh to buy cosmetics, perfumes and fancy underwear. Things began to change only when the license raj ended. And one of the beneficiaries of this was Narendra Modi. I have never forgotten that first campaign of his when he talked of how government had no business to be in business. One of the reasons why people like me supported him was because of the hope that he would dismantle what remains of the licence raj and curb the evil officials who end one regulation only to make two more. They lived better in those central planning days than big businessmen and they had more power. They could destroy major industrialists with just a single signature. And they knew that they would get away with this because the political leaders who were their bosses were all lefties of the most committed kind. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to understand the real meaning of a 'dead economy', he needs to go back to his economics tutor and ask him to loan him some books on Nehruvian socialism. A short course is all he needs, not a degree, but a short course is essential because he leads our oldest political party and the only one that can challenge the BJP. Meanwhile, he would do well to keep his economic ideas to himself because they are ideas that are truly dead. My grievance against Modi is that he has failed to dismantle the remnants of the licence raj. He allows his bureaucrats too free a hand to make rules and regulations that crush real enterprise. Government-sponsored startups and unicorns are just a new incarnation of the public sector. What we need is a new generation of economic reforms that would truly make it easier to do business and India will take off beyond anyone's imagination. Trump's tariffs could turn into a real opportunity for India instead of being the threat that they currently appear to be. But for this to happen, Modi needs to remember that he once believed that the government had no business to be in business. Meanwhile, Rahulji can go back to his economics tutor and ask him to explain clearly why the Indian economy is not dead.
Hans India
12 minutes ago
- Hans India
Election system 'already dead' in country: Rahul
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said he will soon release an "atom bomb" of data that will send shockwaves through the election system, alleging that it is "already dead" and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were "rigged". Addressing the inaugural function of the day-long legal conclave on the theme 'Constitutional Challenges: Perspectives and Pathways', he also claimed that the prime minister is sitting on his chair with a "thin majority" and had there been a difference of a few seats, he would have not been there. Gandhi cited data collected by the Congress from an assembly constituency in Karnataka, where the party checked the photographs and names of electors physically and reportedly found out that 1.5 lakh votes were "fake" out of a total of 6.5 lakh voters. "You will see the shockwave that is going to go through the electoral system when we release this data. It is literally like an atom bomb," the Congress leader claimed. "The truth is that the election system in India is already dead. Please remember one thing that the prime minister of India enjoys a very slim majority. If 10-15 seats were rigged, and we suspect the actual figures to be closer to 70-80 to 100, he would not have been the prime minister of the country," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed. "In the coming few days, we are going to prove to you without any doubt how a Lok Sabha election can be rigged, and it was rigged," he alleged. Gandhi will make public details of the "anomalies" in voter list in the constituency in Karnataka on August 5 at Bengaluru's Freedom park. Sharpening his attack on the Election Commission, the former Congress chief said, "It's very clear that the institution that protects this (Constitution), and defends it has been obliterated and taken over." Gandhi also said that he did not have the proof earlier and that is why he could not make such statements before. "But, I am making this statement confidently now because I have 100 per cent proof. And, whoever I have shown it to has fallen off the chair. They literally said how it is possible. But it is possible, it's happening, literally," he claimed. Gandhi said he has been speaking about the election system as he always had a suspicion that there was something wrong. "Right from 2014, I had a suspicion that there is something wrong, something is not adding up. I had suspicions about the Gujarat Assembly elections... About this ability to score sweeping victories. Congress doesn't get a single seat in Rajasthan, doesn't get a single seat in Madhya Pradesh, doesn't get a single seat in Gujarat... This was surprising to me," he said. Gandhi said in Maharashtra three formidable parties "suddenly evaporated" in assembly elections after winning clearly in the Lok Sabha elections a few months ago. Noting that it was in Maharashtra that started to look seriously into electoral malpractice, he said, "We found it clearly that one crore new voters showed up between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha and bulk of those votes go to the BJP. Still, we didn't have clear proof. When I mentioned to my allies that a clear cheating had happened.
