The State Government has approved Rs1.83 crore for implementing tap water projects in four villages of Bilaspur district under National Rural Drinking Water Programme. The approval had been provided for the action plan under financial year 2014-15. Notably, Chhattisgarh has been ranked first in the country for providing domestic water connection in 2014-15 under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), officials stated. This is the State’s second major achievement after bagging first position in the country for installing solar pumps. The Central Government had given a target of 30,000 water connection for the year 2014-15 under the programme the objective of which is to provide pure drinking water to rural people to protect them from water borne diseases, officials stated. The State has provided 88,000 domestic water connections in 10 months of 2014-15 and this is more than 50 percent of total domestic connections provided in the State in past 42 years. In total, the number of domestic connections provided in rural areas has crossed the figure of 2.50 lakh. Overall, more than 97 per cent villages of Chhattisgarh have been electrified so far. As many as 12 districts of the State have been completely electrified while more than half of the districts are about to be declared completely electrified, officials here stated. Around 97.39 per cent villages have been electrified while initiatives have been taken to provide electricity in the remaining 2.61 per cent villages through conventional means and non-conventional sources. Senior officers are monitoring and reviewing the execution and progress of these schemes on daily basis. There are 19,567 habitated villages in the State out of which 19,057 have been electrified. The CSPDCL is providing electricity to 18,208 villages through conventional sources and 39 villages through non-conventional sources. Moreover, the Chhattisgarh government has installed as many as 83 ‘Reverse Osmosis’ (RO) plants in the regions facing problems of salinity in water used for drinking purposes. This apart, there are now 1,252 plants which remove high iron content from drinking water besides 227 plants clearing away high fluoride content from water supplied to the users in various parts of the State, officials stated. Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) officials informed that the government has established 26 district-level laboratories in the State for checking fluoride content in ground water sources. During the last three years, as many as 56,388 samples collected from ground water sources across the state have been examined in the aforesaid laboratories. Out of these, 328 samples were found high in fluoride content. The government spent more than Rs5.62 crore during 2012-13 for implementation of various schemes formulated for ensuring safe drinking water to the people living in fluoride affected areas. In May last year, the State Government has established a total of 105 ‘Flouride Removal Plants’ in settlements of 44 villages in Bastar division. In September last year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had approved Rs190 crore under the State government’s ‘Nal-Jal Scheme’ for eliminating salinity in water supply being made to nearly 152 villages of Bemetara district from Shivnath River.