I greatly thank Hon'ble Chief Minister Sri Naveen Patnaikji for sharing some statistics related to drinking water supply infrastructures through his Twitter and Facebook handles. Hon'ble Chief Minister, citing those information, has tried to allay our fears saying that he was 'satisfied with the progress'.
However, the statistics that his postings contain give enough reason to doubt whether our Government has concrete and correct information on number of Pipe Water Supply sources/schemes in Odisha.
Three different sources, all contemporary and should be showing/providing updated information, give three distinctly different set of numbers about number of Pipe Water Supply (PWS) schemes in Odisha.
1. Hon'ble Chief Minister's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Naveen.odisha/ informs that there are 9,533 PWS in rural Odisha.
2. Only about a month ago, in March 28 this year, Hon'ble Rural Development Minister Sri Badri Narayan Patra had stated in the Assembly that there are 10,228 PWS schemes in Odisha. It was extensively quoted by media, including Times of India which I am referring to here. ( http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/Water-Supply-Hit-by-Cut-in-Central-assistance-State/2016/04/28/article3403959.ece )3. The MIS maintained by Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Government of India , for which data is entered by the state government, informs that there are 15,357 groundwater based PWS schemes; 1,471 surface water based PWS schemes; and 21 PWS schemes from other sources. Together they become 16,849. http://indiawater.gov.in/IMISReports/Reports/BasicInformation/rpt_SchemesSourcesGWSW_D.aspx?Rep=1 )
Now, if I am not wrong then the three numbers (a) 9,533; (b) 10,228; and (c) 16,849 are not same.
So, the million dollar question is: which information is correct; Or, is every information source incorrect?
Hope Hon'ble Chief Minister will take kind of note of it.
(Posted by Bimal Prasad Pandia on May 05, 2016 at 19.55)
