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1209 hours (Mr. Deputy-Speaker in the Chair) Sir, last year, in the Budget debate, I drew the attention of the hon. Finance Minister to the findings of Gaurav Dutt, one of the world Bank’s leading experts on the subject that the Government’s annual servey of household expenditure pointed to an alarming stagnation, and even a possible increase in levels of poverty during the decade of the 1990s. These concerns were subsequently reinforced by the World Bank’s Report on Global Poverty, and articles by leading academicians like Shri Nagaraj in the Economic and Political Weekly. A responsible Government would have faced the truth. This Government just fiddled with statistics.The Finance Minister, Sir, in his Budget Speech on 28th February, had the gall to bluntly tell this House, I quote from paragraph four:

Sir, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu’s Ministry has three Departments -- the Department of Drinking Water Supply, the Department of Land Resources and the Department of Rural Development. With your permission, Sir, I would like to take them up one by one.

This Government committed itself through its National Agenda of Governance and subsequently through the President’s Address of 1999 to making available potable drinking water to all habitations and , in schools, everywhere in the country within five years, that is, by the year 2005. To this end, they have prepared a document to which they have given a somewhat exaggerated name, the, Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP). Yet, Sir, having looked at this Comprehensive Action Plan, after having looked at the way the Ministry of Finance of the same Government treats its own Comprehensive Action Plan, after seeing the contempt with which the Planning Commission has dismissed this Comprehensive Action Plan, our Standing Committee headed by Shri Anant Gangaram Geete notes with dismay, and I quote here that "the allocation earmarked is a mere one-third of what is required to achieve the target set in pursuance of the Comprehensive Action Plan."

Sir, the worst of this is that the Ministry of Rural Development congratulates itself on its wonderful performance. They are pleased with their performance. But what does the Planning Commission say in the Mid Term Appraisal? I am not quoting the Congress Party and I am not quoting the Opposition. I am just saying what does the Planning Commission of today’s Government of India have to say about today’s Minister of Rural Development in regard to the question that is before us just now -- Drinking Water Supply. I quote from para 2.14 of the Standing Committee’s Report that "although the Ministry of Rural Development claims more than 95 per cent coverage, the Planning Commission says that independent reports show that scarcity of drinking water exists in about a half of the villages of India."

I do take notice of what the hon. Members have said with regard to the pace of implementation of the SGSY scheme. We are trying our best to improve the performance of that particular scheme.

SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR (MAYILADUTURAI): Sir, the figures I quoted are about the Budget Estimates and the Revised Estimates. With regard to the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, they are in the documents that have been presented to us by the hon. Minister of Finance. So, I do not want my good friend, Shri Venkaiah Naidu, who, I think is the best Minister of Rural Development, to get into any trouble on the floor of the House. He is having a long time. So, please do not say the figures are wrong. You can give a different interpretation to them. But they are the figures taken from the Budget documents.