Public Facilities chapter civics

Q1 why do you think there are so few cases of private water supply in the world?

·        The main reasons are that a private company works for profit in the market.

·        There have been a few examples where the responsibility for water supply was handed over to private companies. As a result there was a steep rise in the price of water making it unaffordable for most of the people.

·        Within India, few private companies supply water through water tankers or sealed bottles. But because of their high price not all people can afford it.
The Indian Constitution recognizes the right to water as being a part of the Right to Life.

·        The responsibility lies with the Government to ensure universal access to water.

Q2: Do you think water in Chennai is available and affordable by all? Discuss water supply in the world?

·                     Water supply in Chennai is marked by shortages. Municipal supply meets only about half the needs of the people of the city, on an average.

·                     There are areas which get water more regularly than others. Those areas that are close to the storage points get more water.

·                     The burden of shortfalls in water supply falls mostly on the poor.

·                     The middle class, when faced with water shortages, are able to cope through a variety of private means such as digging bore wells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking.

Q3: How is the sale of water by farmers to water dealers in Chennai affecting the local people? Do you think local people can object to such exploitation of ground water? Can the Government do anything in this regard?

Due to sale of water by farmers to water dealers the ground water levels have dropped drastically in all these towns and villages.

Local people are facing severe shortages of water. They can object to such exploitation of ground water.

Being a natural resource, under-ground water should not be overused. Government should take strict steps in this regard.

 It should penalize such farmers as well as water dealers. Such activities of the farmers must not be tolerated.

Q4: Why are most of the private hospitals and private schools located in major cities and not in towns and rural areas?

 The services offered by these private hospitals and private schools are quite costly which the poor and even many middle-class people cannot afford.

The infrastructure and quality of services offered by these hospitals and schools are definitely better.

The rich and ambitious people who can afford to their costs live more in cities than in towns or rural areas.

This is the reason why the private hospitals and private schools are mostly located in major cities and not in towns or rural areas.

Q5: Do you think the distribution of public facilities in our country is adequate and fair? Give an example of your own to explain.

 The distribution of public facilities in our country is neither adequate nor fair.

For example, people  living in Chandigarh avail all public facilities like water, healthcare and sanitation, electricity, public transport, schools and colleges. But if we see in other cities for example, Ferozepur and faridkot people face grave crises of public facilities. Electricity cut-offs, water shortages are normal routine of life. Public transport is also not properly developed.

Q6 Private educational institutions—schools, colleges, universities, technical and vocational training institutes are coming up in our country in a big way. On the other hand, educational institutes run by the government are becoming relatively less important. What do you think would be the impact of this? Discuss.  

The impact of this would be as follows: 

(i) Government institutions will gradually loose importance.

(ii) The poor people will not be able to get higher education since they cannot afford high fee in private institutions. It will be unjust for the economically poor and weaker section of our society.