EHRADUN: Uttarakhand state government has decided to give 20000 liters of water per month free of cost to 18.5 lakh consumers in the state.
Out of total consumers, 6.53 lakh are in urban areas while a majority of 12 lakh are based in rural areas of the hill state.
Nitesh Jha, secretary, Uttarakhand government said, "The tariff on the drinking water supply is to be done by sub committe. The final decision in the matter will be taken by the states cabinet."
The sub committe headed by Uttarakhand state cabinet minister Madan Kaushik has funalised the draft. According to the draft upto 20,000 liters of water will be free for domestic use while for commercial establishments, the limit has been powered to 10,000 liters.
In case of usage of extra water by any of the consumers, whole bill will have to be paid even if a single litre of water is used more than the prescribed limit.
The move comes after many political parties including Aam Admi Party and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal have announced free power and water to the people of the state if they form a majority government in upcoming state assembly elections in year 2022.
Earlier in July 2020, in a move to provide respite to remote and rural areas of Uttarakhand, the state government had announced that rural household will be provided with water connections at Re 1 instead of earlier Rs 2350.
The sources in the state government said that Uttarakhand is probably the first country to provide water connection at such a nominal fee.
Till April 1, 2020 out of total 14,61,910 rural households in Uttarakhand state only 2,17,120 had water supply line according to the central government data.
The scheme was launched in August 2019 by Jal Shakti Ministry of the union government.
The union government has already allocated Rs 3.60 lakh Crore for the project. Out of total funding, Rs 2.08 lakh Crore will be provided by the Centre while Rs 1.52 lakh Crore will be be borne by the states.