The Madhya Pradesh government prioritizes drinking water over roads and irrigation, releasing a substantial budget of Rs 5,519 crore for the Public Health Engineering Department. Explore the state’s strategic plan to address its drinking water crisis amidst challenges and corruption.
INVC NEWS
Bhopal : The government’s focus in Madhya Pradesh is on providing drinking water to the people. For this, the government has provided more budget for drinking water than roads and irrigation. The government has released a fund of Rs 5,519 crore for PHE to spend on drinking water. Whereas Rs 4,422 crore has been released for roads and Rs 4,556 crore for irrigation. It is worth noting that drinking water is one of the biggest problems in the state. However, there is a lot of corruption in the PHE department. Despite all this, the government has given the highest budget for drinking water.
Fund of Rs 5,519 crore released for PHE to spend
How big an issue drinking water is in the state can be gauged from the fact that despite complaints of irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission, the government has released a fund of Rs 5,519 crore for PHE to spend on drinking water rather than roads and irrigation projects in capital expenditure. While Rs 4,422 crore has been released for roads and Rs 4,556 crore for irrigation. During the budget session of the Vidhan Sabha, the MLAs had raised the issue of irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission in the House. Many members had raised questions about irregularities and corruption in group water projects. But the House could run for only 5 days. Due to which the drinking water works being done under Jal Jeevan Mission in the entire state could not be fully disclosed. During the session itself, the government approved the budget and now the maximum funds have also been released to PHE for drinking water.
PHE is dependent on in-charge
The government has provided a big budget to PHE for drinking water, but the department is running on the basis of in-charges. The post of ENC is lying vacant in the department. The charge of ENC has been given to the superintending engineer. There is a shortage of chief engineers and superintending engineers in the field. In-charge officers have been appointed on most of the posts. Despite this, a budget of Rs 5,519 crore has been released to PHE for the next 8 months. PHE will have to spend an amount of 690 crores every month in the special expenditure limit. Whereas 2,217 crores for Panchayat and Rural Development, 2,243 crores for Energy Department, 2081 crores for School Education, 1320 crores for Forest, 1152 crores for tribal work, 1016 crores for medical education i.e. construction of medical college and other works, 848 crores for health system, 576 crores for industrial policy and investment and 490 crores for technical education have been released to be spent in the next eight months. Under the special expenditure limit set by the Finance Department, the Public Works Department will have to spend 553 crores every month i.e. 4.422 crores in 8 months.
An amount of 570 crores has been given every month to spend on more than a dozen irrigation projects to be built on Narmada and its tributary rivers. At the same time, the Urban Administration Department will have to spend Rs 466 crore every month to get the work of drinking water, roads and infrastructure done in more than 300 urban bodies. At the same time, only Rs 3,311 crore will have to be spent on the construction of irrigation projects being built by the Water Resources Department at the rate of Rs 414 crore every month. However, the government has given exemption to 14 departments to spend Rs 33 thousand 482 crore from August to March 2025.
