NEW DELHI: Panchayats will have full freedom to decide monthly user fee for each household under the Jal Jeevan Mission (tap water connection) scheme and it will decide who all could be exempted from paying the charges.
Union drinking water secretary Parameswaran Iyer told TOI that the ministry will soon issue guidelines for operation of the scheme under which villagers will have to pay for 10% of the cost of in-village distribution system and this can be this in cash or kind (labour).
"Our guidelines will provide a lot of flexibility. The thumb rule of one-tenth of the capital expenditure for in-village distribution system coming from villagers is to give them a sense of ownership and accountability to people," he said.
Iyer said managing piped water supply should be done at the lowest appropriate level. If there is adequate quality and quantity of water available in a village, it should be a local scheme. But if the water has to be drawn from a distance, then it will be a multi-village scheme with higher level structures to manage the system.
Sources said since the government wants to replicate the models adopted for Swachh Bharat Mission to make tap water connection a people's movement, it plans to give a lot of power and responsibility to locals to manage their own affairs. Currently, the household tap water coverage is around 19% and the government has set a target to achieve 100% connection by 20Read More – Source
