Every tribal hamlet in the Telangana state is being supplied with protected drinking water door to door. Telangana state has 6.87 lakh tribal households and every household is getting drinking water through taps. This was stated by the Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Mr Prahlad Singh in Rajya Sabha.
There are 217.13 lakh tribal households in the country. Only 120.04 (55.45 per cent) of households are getting safe drinking water. In Telangana, 100 per cent of tribal households are getting protected drinking water. The states ruled by the BJP and Congress parties are lagging in this aspect.
Taking part in the discussion, Rajya Sabha member Kavitha Pattidar said the figures given by Minister Prahlad Singh show the pathetic situation of tribals. In Rajasthan, there are 17.64 lakh tribal households of which only 3.34 lakh households get tap water. Even in Madhya Pradesh which is known to have the highest tribal population, only 45.42 per cent of tribal households get tap water.
The situation is poor in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram states. Of the total 23.01 lakh tribal households in these seven states, only 14 lakhs (64.84 per cent) households get tap water.
The BRS government paid special attention to the problems facing the tribals. It has launched `Giri Poshana’ scheme to address the malnutrition problem earning accolades from all. It had taken up the supply of protected drinking water through Mission Bhagiratha to every house.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao