Ram Vilas Paswan makes clarion call to begin 'Swachh Pani Abhiyan'

The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan has made a clarion call for initiating a 'Swachh Pani Abhiyan'. The union minister on Thursday said that we need a clean water campaign on the lines of 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' in India. He asserted that this call is not a matter of consumer rights but of people's lives and therefore must be given priority. Ram Vilas Paswan chaired a meeting with the officials of the Bureau of India Standards (BIS), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), officials from the Ministry of Jal Shakti and Department of Consumer Affairs and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), where the need of clean drinking water was discussed. 

Discussions held within the meeting 

The minister speaking about the piped drinking water goals by 2024 said, “Prime Minister Modi's vision to provide piped drinking water to all households by 2024 and for furthering this vision and mission, he has started this Abhiyan which has begun from Delhi and will be taken across the nation.” Furthermore, discussions in the meeting suggested that the standards for clean drinking water set by BIS must be made mandatory. This is currently voluntary in nature and clean water will be ensured only when mandatory rules can be enforced. BIS, in the meeting, also stated that all samples, tested by them, failed to meet the BIS standard on multiple parameters. They had collected samples from 11 places from the Delhi region and tested them on 42 parameters such as PH levels, Odour, Metal content, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).  

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‘Delhi Jal Board Responsible’ 

The Union Minister, Paswan said that it was DJB’s responsibility to provide clean drinking water to all residents of Delhi as people are facing numerous issues due to unclean water. He further directed BIS officials to collect samples from state capitals and compile the results by November 2019. BIS reiterated that the process of collecting samples from state capitals has begun and they will be conducting a test of all the water samples for which teams have been deployed. Paswan in a public statement also said that this is an important matter that touches the lives of all citizens and especially children who are most vulnerable.  

(With ANI Inputs)

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