water supply service in india: corruption as perceived by the bpl population
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Water Supply Service
Introduction
Water is a basic and essential need of all households. For poor households, availability ofsubsidized & regular water supply through different schemes provided by the governmentplays a crucial role to meet their daily water requirements for drinking, sanitation and
irrigation.
National Water Policy (2002) among many other things aims at subsidized water supplyto the disadvantaged and poorer section of the country.1
The Government of India provided assistance to the states to establish specialinvestigation divisions in the Fourth Five Year Plan to carry out identification of problem
villages. Taking into account the magnitude of problem, and to accelerate the pace of
coverage of problem villages, the central government introduced ARWSP in 1972-73 toassist States and Union Territories with 100% grants-in-aid to implement drinking water
supply. Coverage norms:
40 litres per capita per day of drinking water for human beings
1 hand pump or stand post for every 250 persons, and
Availability of water source within 1.6 km in plains and 100 metres elevation in
hilly areas.
This programme was given a mission approach when the Technology Mission on
Drinking Water Management, called the National Drinking Water Mission (NDWM),was introduced as one of the five missions in the social sector in 1986, NDWM was
renamed as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM) in 1991, andfurther in 1999, the department of drinking water supply was created. The Missions
main objectives are:
To ensure coverage of rural habitations with safe drinking water supply
To preserve quality of water by institutionalising water quality monitoring and
surveillance as well as support the states for tackling the quality problem.
To ensure the sustainability of the systems and sources
A number of habitations, which were covered under ARWSP, have slipped back to not
covered or partially covered due to a number of factors like:
Sources going dry or lowering of ground water table,
Sources becoming quality affected,
Systems outliving their lives,
Systems working below rated capacity due to poor operation and maintenance,
Increase in population resulting in lower per capita availability,
Increase in population or emergence of new habitations.
1http://wrmin.nic.in/ (National Water Policy 2002)
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Bharat Nirman conceived as a plan to build rural infrastructure within a four-year period
(2005-06 to 2008-09) have drinking water supply as one of the components as it hastaken over ARWSP. As drinking water supply is a state subject the respective states take
responsibilities of providing the facility but central assistance is indispensable.
In terms of coverage of habitations for water supply underBharat Nirman Programme,
the states have been categorized as above the national average and below. But betterachievement does not necessarily mean that all habitations of these states have been
covered with water connectivity and all covered habitations are being provided water
supply of good quality and in sufficient amount. These percent figures as revealed by thegovernment could be an indication at best that, water issues are being attended to and in
no way this figures reflect BPL households.
Table 1: Percent of Habitations covered under Bharat Nirman(Coverage during 2005-06 to 2006- 2007)
States/UTs
Percentage of Habitations Covered against
Target Set Above or Below Average
Manipur 373
Above
Pondichery 172
Uttar Pradesh 117
Mizoram 99
Chattisgarh 92
Madhya Pradesh 82
Assam 80
Orissa 76
Sikkim 70
Haryana 67
Gujarat 64
Himachal Pradesh 58
Karnataka 58National Average
Bihar 57
Below
Kerala 54
Tamil Nadu 52
Rajasthan 52
Uttarakhand 50
Goa 50
Meghalaya 49
Maharashtra 45
Tripura 43
Andhra Pradesh 43
Punjab 43Arunachal Pradesh 41
Nagaland 40
Jharkhand 32
Jammu & Kashmir 22
West Bengal 17
Source: http://ddws.nic.in/
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To assess BPL households perception and experience with the water service during the
last one year, TII-CMS ICS 2007interacted with 22728 households across 31 States andUTs in the country.
Interaction with Water service
Among the surveyed BPL households covered in 31 states and UTs, 14 percent interactedwith water service for one or other purposes during the last one year. Wherever the waterservices are available now, there are chances for more households to interacting with.
(in %)
Usage of Service
All India
(N=22728)
States by Targets Achieved
Better Low
14 17 12
The interaction of households for water service could be broadly categorised in to two.
One, which are recurring in nature and other are non-recurring ones and therefore needslesser number of interaction with service providers.
Recurring visit is for bill payment at the designated outlets while non-recurring shouldinclude interactions made for connection related issues like getting a new connection,
repairing of meters among others.
The percentage of BPL households visiting water supply was more in better achieved
states (17%) compared to low achieved states (12%). However, in states like Gujarat
and Sikkim, the percentage of BPL households visiting the service provider was around
one-third while in Chandigarh & Goa among low performing states, it was nearly one-
fourth.
There is a marked difference between rural and urban to the extent of BPL householdinteraction. In urban area, 22% poor interact with water service while it is only 11 % in
rural areas. Rural households more likely rely on community sources like wells, tube-
wells and natural sources of water (e.g., spring, river etc) whereas in urban slumshouseholds largely depend on piped water supply. More urban households have
individual connections and are entitled to pay water bills. So interaction of urban BPL
households is more compared to their rural counterparts.
Purpose of Visit
Of those who interacted with water supply service nearly 40 per cent visited for
installation/maintenance of hand pumps followed by visit to pay the bill (36%). Among
states, a major chunk of households in Gujarat (73%) and Meghalaya (63%) interactedfor installation/maintenance of hand-pumps during the last one year.
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The households labelled as BPL are not subjected to pay the bill for water. As selection
procedure of BPL households in every state has not been done properly in some cases theBPL households without a BPL card are treated like general households.
More than 80 percent of BPL households in Goa and Chandigarh interacted with thewater supply service to pay the monthly bill. Since in states like Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh
and Pondicherry, the villages are more urbanised and have more number of individualconnections so percentage of households interacting for paying water bill is relativelyhigh. Number of households interacting for supply of water tankers is high in states like
Assam (31%), Delhi (21%) and Tripura (16%).
Purposes of Interaction: All India
Installation/maintena
nce of hand-pumps
38%
Regularization of
unauthorised water
connection
4%
Bill payment
35%
Supply of water
tankers
7%
Irrigation water
6%
Repair of water pipe
6%
Water meter
installation
4%
The study revealed that the BPL households had to make repeat visits to the concerned
office for purpose other than to pay the water bill.
Of the households visiting for purposes other than paying their monthly bill, as high as 56
percent had to make three or more visits to the water supply outlets during the last one
year. A break up of reasons for which these households interacted thrice or more bringsout that majority of these BPL households interacted for installation/maintenance of hand
pumps.
Visiting Three Times or More
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(in %)
Purpose of Visit All India
States by Targets Achieved
Better Low
Installation/maintenance of hand-pumps 60 66 53
Supply of water tankers 10 11 45
Irrigation water 10 9 11Repair of water pipe 8 6 9
Regularization of unauthorised water
connection
6 5 8
Water meter installation 6 4 9
About 66% BPL households are forced to interact several times with water supplyservices for installation/maintenance of hand pumps reveals that the better performing
states have failed to provide consistently workable source of drinking water.
As high as 45% households interacting the service for supply of water tankers in the lowperformance states indicates the unavailability and irregularity of water supply.
Difficulty Factors
In order to avail the services, most of the poor households had to face one or the other
difficulty. The nuisance included procedural delays, absence of staff, and corrupt staff.Being illiterate, the BPL households during their visit to the office come under the
influence of middlemen at the time of filling up forms or applying for the purpose.
Difficulty Factor All India
Procedural 41Corrupt Staff 31Absence of Staff 23Interference of Middlemen 5
More than half of these BPL households felt that office staffs who are responsible for
providing services under the water supply programmes either indulge in corrupt practices
or are unavailable. The unwanted delays force BPL households either to remain deprivedof the benefits or use unfair means to make the system work. BPL Households believe
that causing such procedural delays is a deliberate practice of the department staff
towards compelling visitors to use unfair methods like paying bribe or using a contact.
Perception about Water Supply service
42 percent of these poor households view that corruption exists in the water supply
service. Even though some states have taken measures towards curb corruption and make
the service delivery efficient, it is yet to be felt at the grassroots. As a result BPLhouseholds continue either to be deprived of the service or keep visiting.
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In Assam, despite achieving 80% of the allotted targets nine out of ten BPL households
felt that corruption existed in the water supply service. While in Arunachal Pradesh,where only around 40% water supply targets was achieved, as low as 14% believe that
corruption exists.
On being enquired whether corruption has increased or decreased in the last one year,
around one-fourth felt that it has increased while half of the respondents did not noticeany change in the level of corruption during the last one year. In states like Jharkhand(65%) and Assam (62%), relatively higher percentage of BPL households felt that
corruption in water service has in fact increased during last one year. However, in states
like Delhi (61%), Chattisgarh (53%), Bihar (56%) and Chandigarh (51%), majority of the
surveyed households believe that corruption has come down in the department.
21
48
3129
53
17
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Respondents(%
Better Low
Group of States
Perception about Level of Corruption in Water Department
by Category of States
Increased Same Came Down
Incidence of Corruption
Of the BPL households who interacted with water supply service 14 percent had to eitherpay bribe or use contact for availing the services.
Although these BPL households perceive corruption in water services but due to theirinadequate source of income, about 4 % could not afford to pay bribe and thus could notavail the services. Moreover, since most of them do not have any contact to influence
to get their work done, they remain deprived of the benefits.
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8
6
4
6 6
4
11
6
4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Respondents(%
All India Better Low
Category of States
Gateway of Services-Bribe or Contact?
P aid Bribe
Used Influence
Did not take service
Scarcity of water supply could be the reason for more BPL households paying bribe in
the states where achieved target is lower than the national average.
Reason for Paying Bribe
Among reasons cited by those who paid bribes, installation/maintenance of hand pumpswas reported by high percentage (49%) of the BPL households, out of those who paid
bribe. This may be due to the lack of proper implementation or inconsistency of water
supply programmes.
The second most important reason cited by BPL households for paying bribe was to get
water connection regularized. This is more prevalent in urban areas than the rural
counterpart. The next important reason was the repair of water pipes in the states likeArunachal Pradesh (27%), Jammu & Kashmir (30%) & Delhi (43%). Many BPL
households had to pay bribe to get supply of water tankers in Delhi (29%), Karnataka
(16%) and Meghalaya (13%).
In many states like Delhi, potable water is supplied through tankers, in the event of non-
availability/short supply of water, within 3 hours of the complaint subject to availabilityof tanker at a particular location. This service is free of cost.
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Case StudyShyam Ahuja is a resident of Najafgarh in Delhi whose water meter had stopped functioning. He
promptly registered a complaint in the Water Supply Department.
But no action was taken on his complaint. He recalls, I made innumerable visits to the Water
Department to plead them to take an immediate action but each time they sent me back with some lame
excuse. Without a meter I was unable to verify my bills so I was unable to make the payments. A yearpassed away making rounds of the water supply department..
Then one day Shyams water supply was disconnected without any notice due to non payment ofbills. He was compelled to make the payment without any verification. However even after paying the bills
the supply was not re-started. Shyam recalls, Life without water even for a day is so difficult but here the
department did not care if days passed away without any water supply. We had to now purchase water with
our meager income to manage our work. I made several frantic visits to the department but the indifference
continued. Then one day a water department staff took me aside and told me that my work could be done if
I was willing to pay Rs.300. After spending a huge amount in the visits to the department and thenpurchasing water; I was completely stressed out. I knew I had no choice so I decided to pay the bribe to
finally get the meter repaired!
Reasons for which bribe was paid
53
10
14
7
9
7
4
1
8
9
11
458
13
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Installation/Maintenance of hand pumps
Bill payment
Regularization of unauthorized w ater connection
Water meter installation
Supply of w ater tankers
Repair of w ater pipe
Irrigation Water
Rural Urban
Regularization of unauthorised connections was one of the reasons for which more urban
poor households had to pay bribe. In rural areas paying bribe was more for reasons suchas installation of hand pumps and for irrigation water, whereas BPL households paying
bribe for issues related to water bill was more in urban locations.
Route of Bribe Payment
Four-fifth of those who paid bribe to avail water services paid it directly to concerned
government officials/staffs of the water service. Presence of middlemen was also noticed
within the system. One out of five BPL households paid it through an agent. These poor
households due to their low socio-economic profile many a times hesitate to interact
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directly with the concerned staff and therefore get in to trap of middlemen or agents. In
better performing category of states, the percentage of households paying bribe throughagents was a little more.
(in %)
Route of PaymentAll India
Govt. official/staff 81Agent/Middlemen 18
Local Representative 1
Interestingly, the present study found that apart from agents and middlemen, localrepresentatives like panchayat or ward members also played the role of intermediary for
routing bribe amount to the officials. However, agents/middlemen were found to be more
active in urban locations while in rural areas official staffs were prominent as far asrouting of bribe is concerned.
A higher percentage of rural BPL households (83%) paid bribe to govt. officials than in
urban BPL households (78%). On the other hand, 20% households paid bribes throughMiddlemen in urban areas against 16% in rural areas. Role of middlemen was reportedly
found to be more in Manipur, Mizoram, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa and Tamil Nadu.
In case of water supply, the presence of agents or middlemen has a catalytic impact in
providing better services due to their personal interests.
Estimation of Bribe Amount
Out of the total BPL households in the country it is estimated that around 6.71 lakhshouseholds paid bribe to avail water service in the last one year the total amount of bribe
paid by BPL households to the water service during the past year is estimated to bearound Rs 23.94 crore. In other words, on an average a BPL household had shelled out
Rs 357 as bribe to avail water service.
The amount of paid bribe ranges from as low as Rs 10, paid at the time of bill payment in
Karnataka to as high as Rs 3700, paid for installation of hand pumps in Uttar Pradesh.Since in rural areas the source is shared by community, most of the times it is the
community, not individual household who interact with the service. Thus in the rural
areas more than one household share the bribe paid for installation or repair of handpumps.
In Punjab, Haryana, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh the average amount of bribe is quitehigh, ranging from Rs.700 to 2350. The minimum bribe paid in Uttar Pradesh amounts toRs. 1000 also for installation and maintenance of hand pumps.
The reasons for paying bribe are:
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Reasons for Paying Bribe by BPL HHsBribe Paid (Rs)
Range Average
Installation/Maintenance of hand pumps 30-3700 509
Bill payment 10-500 101
Regularization of unauthorized water connection 20-1500 350
Water meter installation 30-1000 228Supply of water tankers 35-1000 194
Repair of water pipe 20-500 149
Irrigation Water 20-600 179
Perception on Measures Taken to Improve Service Delivery
When asked if initiatives taken against corruption by the water service were successful,
about 16 per cent of the BPL households replied in the affirmative, while the rest either
disagreed or showed their unawareness about any such initiatives.
(in %)
Measures Taken toAll India States by Targets Achieved
Better Low
Check against corruption 16 21 11
Make information easily available 24 30 18
Improve Grievance Redressal 22 26 18
Easy access to information about procedures and processes to avail the services is a
prerequisite to improve service delivery and make it user friendly. However, three out of
four households interacting with the service felt that information on document required orwhen meter will be installed or repaired is not easily available.
To add to the problem on approaching the concerned staff someone with grievance, there
is less chance of listening to their woes. In Delhi, Bihar & Chandigarh, percentage ofBPL households who acknowledged improvement in grievance redressal system in the
water supply system was relatively more.
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Where do states stand?
Comparison of states performance on the basis of targets achieved during 2005-2007
vis--vis BPL households perception and experience about corruption (as shown
in the matrix below) shows no correlation between the extent of achievement of
official targets and corruption experienced by BPL households.
Performance
in terms
of
targets
of water
supply
achieved
Extent of Corruption experienced by BPL households
Alarming Very High High Moderate
Low Nagaland,Jammu &
Kashmir,Tamil Nadu
Goa,Jharkha
nd,Meghal
aya
Kerala, Bihar,Maharas
htra,Arunach
al
Pradesh,West
Bengal
Uttarakhand,Rajasthan,
Andhra Pradesh,Tripura, Punjab
Better Assam MadhyaPradesh,
Chattisg
arh,Orissa
Haryana,Manipur
, Uttar
Pradesh,Pondich
ery
Mizoram, Chandigarh,Karnataka,
Gujarat, Delhi,
HimachalPradesh, Sikkim
Among better-achieved states the level of corruption is found to be alarming in the states
of Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland while within the category with lower
coverage of habitation, only Assam has an alarming level of corruption.
Higher achievement and very high extent of corruption co-exist in states such as
Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Goa and Jharkhand. This fact isalso supported by the fact that average amount of bribe paid in better achieved states is
far more than that of low achieved states. Higher achievement in terms of coverage ofmore habitation for water supply does not mean that BPL households get the benefits outof it. Apparently they are not the priorities and their woes continue.
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Service Providers Perspective
Regarding Complaints and Problems: The concerned officials of the water services
across the country admitted that their department regularly receives complaints on issueslike unavailability of clean and regular water supply, lack of hand pumps or tube wells
due to limited coverage of the water supply programmes and leakage & burst of water
pipes. Faulty meter readings, excess bill and procedural delay are other commoncomplaints.
Blockage in pipe due to high iron content is a common problem in Tripura while inMeghalaya due to hostile terrain the supply of water is inadequate. In Punjab, BPL
households include complaint regarding accumulation of water in low-lying areas during
rainy season.
They opined that many a times, due to lack of information and complete documentation,
household has to make repeated visits for getting a new connection or for repair/
installation of a meter and hand pump.
Regarding Pro-poor Initiatives: In order to provide easy and better services for BPL
population most states have taken some pro-poor initiatives which include supply of
water tankers, free or subsidized connections, panchayat collaboration to serve peoplebetter, village to village publicity of schemes, recruitment of more staff, opening of new
counters & complain booths, accelerated & additional water supply, extension of waterlines, construction of water tanks and increase in the number of technical staffs.
Introduction of Swajal Dhara in 26 states started assuring 24 hours water supply by
institutionalising community participation for the sustainability of drinking water supplysystems and sources in rural areas. Underway water facility along with rainwater
harvesting is getting popular in Maharashtra.
To provide potable drinking water, new water treatment plants have been set up in
Jharkhand. Special squad of engineers has been formed to look after the technicalities ofwater supply system in Rajasthan. Frequent field visit and lab testing of water areundertaken to maintain the quality of supplied water in Bihar.
Single-window-system in Punjab is one of the unique initiatives to fasten the process
whereas in Karnataka, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh the concerned department has nottaken any initiative.
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Citizens charter is available in the Central Water Commission (CWC) offices and in
departments of drinking water supply of respective states as well as in the websites.
Regarding Extent of Corruption: Despite the fact that people faced so many problems
in getting full and prompt services, receiving complaint from people was negligible inmost of the states. In states of West Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh,
Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab,Haryana, Tripura, J&K and Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal, and Pondicherry theofficials did not receive any written complaint.
Meghalaya, Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh are among the states
where very few verbal complaints had been received. While officials in Mizoram andGoa reported to have received very few written complaints in Rajasthan the office staffs
had received as high as 50 written complaints in past 3 month.
Regarding Measures to curb Corruption: Concerned officials in states of West Bengal,
Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Bihar informed about the formation of vigilance
committees at village levelto monitor the functioning of water service.
Social audit was conducted in Punjab; vigilance awareness week was celebrated in
Meghalaya. In Kerala, special periodical training to was provided for the staff to curb
corruption. Separate division is operating in Jammu & Kashmir to look into the status ofcorruption on 24 hr basis. While Jharkhand started computerized billing to keep work
procedure systematic, in Rajasthan linemen are assigned to check pipes.
Surprisingly, call centres have been operating in highly corrupt states of Madhya Pradesh
and Jharkhand for fastening the redressal mechanism. Single window system is a measure
to stop interaction with various divisions in Andhra Pradesh, towards reducing the
chances of getting into unofficial means to get the work done.
Although there are targeted programmes for rural community, BPL households dont get priorities. However, officials felt that more efforts need to be made to help curb
corruption and that in order to do the same, people should be sensitised about the
provisions of water service by organising regular campaigns at village level. This could
be done by involving local panchayats and Civil Society groups working in the area.
Over and above, the service providers felt that strict, timely and unbiased action against
corrupt officials and staff of the department would help in checking corruption. Furtherstrengthening of departments vigilance cell was another suggestion made by service
providers. Some officials opined that the number of staff should be increased for betterand efficient service delivery.
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Suggestions to Improve Service Delivery under Water Service
Besides improving and fully implementing the programmes, states could consider some
measures for raising awareness against corruption, information dissemination, repairing
leakages, correct meter installation and improving better compliance of rules andregulations.
Supply of water tankers: supply of water tankers in low availability areas or in thesummers should be decentralised and local philanthropists should be roped in to attend to
local needs.
Articulation of problem: BPL users need to be articulated/ they should communicatetheir problems properly and promptly. Till this culture comes into practice, particularly
among BPL households, improvement in redressal cannot be much different. Users more
often remain passive for even reasons including fear of not being attended to.
Getting organized: BPL people need to be more organized. In rural areas, water users
committees should be more organized and well informed about their rights.
Campaigns: Illiteracy and lack of individual efficacy opens the door for harassment and
corruption. Since most BPL households access only community water supply outlets,
special campaigns in areas selected on the basis of low community pump density shouldbe organized for sanctioning /installation of hand pumps. During such campaigns, special
assistance should be offered to BPL communities for filling up of forms and completing
other procedures.
Since water is a basic and life saving need, an annual fortnightly campaign in each of the
districts for providing water services would go to narrow the distance between the
services and the users and over time, would increase awareness.
Regularization: For dealing with regularisation of illegal connections, where suchinstances are more special campaigns for regularization should be held, may be with offer
of some concessions.
Involvement of local panchayats: the responsibility of maintenance of hand pumpsshould be decentralised and handed over to the local panchayats or to civil society
groups.
Recruiting adequate and responsible staffs: lack of staff and absence of staff make the
situation much worse. There are lots of vacant positions, which act as one ofbarriers to provide better or prompt services.
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HIGHLIGHTS
1. It is estimated that around 14% BPL households (75.14 lakhs) interacted with the
Water Supply Service during the last one year and of them 9% that accounts toaround 6.71 lakhs households paid bribe.
2. The total amount of bribe paid by these BPL households in the Water serviceduring the last one year adds up to little less than Rs 24 crore.
3. In an around 14 percent of the BPL households either paid bribe or used a contact
to avail one or the other services of the Water service during the last one year.
4. Among reasons cited for paying bribe, installation/maintenance of hand pumps
was reported by majority (49%) of the BPL households.
5. Among households interacting with water service for reasons other than paying
their monthly bill, around 80 percent had to visit three times or more to availservices like installation/maintenance of hand pump, supply of water tanker and
irrigation water among others.
6. More than two-fifth of these BPL households think that corruption exists in thewater service. In fact, around one-fourth of the BPL households felt that
corruption had increased in the water service during the past year, while another
50 percent did not notice any change in the corruption level in the service.
7. During the last one year four out of five BPL households, who paid bribe to avail
services in Water service, paid it directly to the concerned official/staff.
8. Around one-sixth of BPL households (16%) felt that measures have been taken
by the local governments to check corruption in Water Supply services.
9. On grievance redressal measures taken within the water service, six out of tenBPL households opined that the situation has not changed at all in the last one
year while 18 per cent felt that it had in fact deteriorated further.
10. Most of the states experiencing very high and alarming levels of corruption
belong to the category that claims achieving targets.
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