Guidelines for the implementation of Rural Drinking Water component under the Prime Minister’s Gramodaya Yojana

(PMGY– Rural Drinking Water)

1. Introduction

In order to achieve the objective of sustainable human development at the village level the Government of India has decided to introduce a new initiative in the form of Prime Minister’s Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) from the year 2000-2001. The PMGY envisages an Additional Central Assistance (ACA) for selected basic minimum services in order to focus on certain priority areas of the Government. The PMGY will have two components, i.e. rural roads and other component has five sectors, namely primary education, primary health, rural shelter, rural drinking water and nutrition. For rural drinking water component of the PMGY, Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development will be the nodal department in the Government of India and the scheme would be called as PMGY – Rural Drinking Water.

2. Allocation of funds

1. The Planning Commission will work out state-wise allocation of ACA and the same would be communicated to all concerned at the beginning of the financial year. The Planning Commission has fixed a minimum 15% of the total ACA to each sector under second component, and States/ UTs would be required to decide about the remaining 25% among the 5-sectors. States, after deciding the allocation for drinking water supply in rural areas will intimate the same to the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for processing the release of funds under the PMGY-Rural Drinking Water.
2. The fund under the scheme would be released to States/ UTs as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) which means 70% loan and 30% grants in the case of general category States and 10% loan and 90% grants-in-aid in the case of special category States for providing safe drinking water in rural areas.

3. Release of funds

1. Funds under PMGY-Rural Drinking Water will be released by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India to respective States/ UTs.

4. Operationlisation of the Scheme

1. In the beginning of the financial year, the States/ UTs would be required to intimate the allocation for rural drinking water supply component out of total ACA under the PMGY to the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
2. Funds released under PMGY-Rural Drinking Water can also be used by the States/ UTs for the purpose of providing matching share under Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) and also for ongoing schemes/ new schemes.
3. The PMGY-Rural Drinking Water programme shall be implemented in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Mission in the year 1999, as amended up to date, for the implementation of rural water supply programme.
4. Under the PMGY–Rural Drinking Water, minimum 25% of the total allocation for the component will be utilized by the respective States/ UTs on projects/ schemes for water conservation, water harvesting, water recharge and sustainability of the drinking water sources in respect of DPP/ DPAP areas, over-exploited dark/ grey blocks and other water stress/ drought affected areas. Allocation of 25% of the total allocation for sustainability may not be insisted upon in areas where the water table and rainfall is high and ground water development is low.
5. Further, remaining 75% of the allocation could be used for taking up projects/ schemes to tackle quality related problems and for providing safe drinking water to Not-Covered (NC)/ Partially Covered (PC) habitations. The States/ UTs should adopt proper scientific source finding methods for location of hand pumps/ tube wells. For this purpose the Scientific Source Finding Committees set up in the States/ UTs earlier should be revived.
6. The projects under PMGY-Rural Drinking Water should be preferably implemented by involving local communities/ panchayats.

5. Sanctioning of projects/ schemes

The projects/ schemes under PMGY-Rural Drinking Water would be sanctioned by the same State level project/ scheme Sanctioning Committee as in the case of ARWSP.

6. Implementing Agency

In those States/ UTs where Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) are implementing or maintaining the rural drinking water supply schemes, the implementation of the projects under this scheme should be entrusted to them. In other States/ UTs, the agency implementing the rural water supply programme would implement these projects also.

7. Monitoring

The concerned department, which implements rural water supply schemes in the State/ UT, will also be monitoring the progress of implementation of the projects taken up under PMGY–Rural Drinking Water. The States/ UTs will be required to furnish Quarterly Progress Reports (QPRs) and Annual Progress Report on physical and financial progress of projects/ schemes taken up for implementation under the PMGY-Rural drinking water to the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Government of India on regular basis, within one month after the date of the quarter/ year. The proforma of the QPR and Annual Progress Report is enclosed at Annexure. The States/ UTs would be required to continuously monitor the implementation of these projects/ schemes.

8. Evaluation & Impact study

1. From time to time, the Planning Commission in consultation with the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India will take up evaluation and impact study and output of the same will be used in further improving the implementation of the projects/ schemes under the programme.