As told to Parliament (November 21, 2019): Road fatalities reduced 9% after Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act came into effect

Motor Vehicles Act

Road accidents and fatalities reduced nine per cent in at least nine states after Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 came into effect from September 1, 2019, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Niti Gadkari told the Lok Sabha on November 21.

During September-October 2019, 3,375 people died in road accidents in comparison to 3,729 deaths during the same period last year.  

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 is intended to bring reforms in the area of road safety. It intends to do this by citizen facilitation, transparency, and reduction of corruption, Gadkari said.

68 per cent of child deaths in India are due to malnutrition

The overall under five child mortality rate in India has reduced from 74.3 (NFHS-3) to 49.7 (NFHS4) deaths per thousand live births, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development told the Rajya Sabha.

The ministry stated this in reply to a question on whether it was aware of the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative's report which said 68 per cent of child deaths in India were due to malnutrition.

Ground water levels down in various parts of India

Ground water levels have declined in 61 per cent of the wells being monitored by the government, according to a comparison of 2019’s pre-monsoon water levels with the decadal average (2009-2018), the Union Jal Shakti ministry told the Lok Sabha.

Drinking water supply in drought-affected areas

The government of India has launched the Jal Jeevan Mission for enabling every rural household in all states and union territories including Rajasthan to have a functional household tap connection, the Union Jal Shakti ministry told the Lok Sabha.

The connection would provide potable water at the rate of 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd) by 2024. The scheme will have an outlay of Rs 3.60 lakh crore, the ministry said.

Electrification of villages

A total of 5,251 un-electrified inhabited census villages were electrified under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana during the last two years ie 2017-18 and 2018-19 (up to April 28, 2018), the government told the Lok Sabha.

The government also presented details about per capita electricity consumption for 2018-19 in the states and union territories.

93.1% rural households have access to toilets

According to the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19 conducted in December, 2018, 93.1 per cent rural households have access to toilets, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry told the Lok Sabha. 

Sanitation coverage in the rural areas of the country, which was 38.7 per cent on October 2, 2014, has increased to 100 per cent and all the 5,99,963 villages of India have already declared themselves as Opend Defecation Free, the ministry added.

Water Scarcity in major cities

Twenty-one major cities across India are expected to run out of ground water by 2020 as mentioned by Niti Aayog, in its report Composite Water Management Index published in June 2018, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told the Lok Sabha.

This is based on the estimates of annual groundwater replenishment and its extraction. However, it does not take into account the groundwater availability in the deeper aquifers, the minister added.

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