KOLKATA: The West Bengal government may not join a central scheme to provide piped water to rural households as the Centre added a precondition asking beneficiaries to pay upto 10 per cent of the cost of laying pipelines to their doorsteps. If West Bengal finally opts out of the Jal Jeevan Mission, it will be third central scheme that will not be implemented in the state. Mamata Banerjee’s government has a policy of not laying water tax on common people.
“Since the central scheme has mentioned a precondition that beneficiaries will have to share the cost of securing piped water, it has been decided primarily that state would not join the project,”said a state government official.
Sources at Nabanna, the state secretariat, said the details of the project sent to the state government said the Centre would bear 50 per cent of the expenditures of the project which will aim to ensure piped water supply to 1.37 crore rural households in Bengal. “The state government needs to bear 40 per cent of the project cost and the remaining 10 per cent of the expenditure will have to be shouldered by the beneficiaries,” said an official.
Mamata Banerjee’s government has already refused to join two central schemes, Ayushman Bharat, a health insurance plan, and PM-Kishan which aims at giving direct financial assistance to farmers. Rather, the state launched two schemes, Swasthya Sathi and Krishak Bandu, on its own.
According to records about 90 per cent of the 1.37 crore rural households do not have piped water supply.