 bill no 238 of  2017 the constitution (amendment) bill, 2017 by shri rajiv pratap rudy,  mp a billfurther to amend the constitution of indiabe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title1 this act may be called the constitution (amendment) act, 2017 2 after article 47 of the constitution, the following article shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new article 47astate to provide access to safe potable water to every household3 in the seventh schedule to the constitution,—amendment of the seventh schedule(i) in list ii-state list, entry 17 shall be omitted; (ii) in list iii-concurrent list, after entry 47, the following entry shall be inserted, namely:—5"48 water, that is to say, water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power subject to the provisions of entry 56 of list 1" statement of objects and reasonswater is the most crucial need and it remains the fundamental necessity of mankindthis necessity has turned itself into one of the basic human rights in india with the per capita availability of water continuing to decline, the nation hurtles towards water scarcity more than three-quarters of india's rural population are dependent on ground water for drinking, but the country's aquifers are not only under tremendous stress, the quality of water they provide is also deterioratingalthough the supreme court as well as several high courts in the country have upheld the citizens' right to have access to clean drinking water as a fundamental right under the purview of article 21 india has the highest number of people in the world without access to safe potable water it is estimated that even today at least 63 million indians do not have access to clean drinking waterthe contamination of water with fluoride, iron, nitrate, arsenic and other heavy metals has not only adversely affected health and environment but the crippling effects of fluoride and arsenic toxicity are transforming to become a major public health issue in the country an alarming 80 per cent of india's surface water is gauged to be polluted due to un-treated sewage effluents the highly vulnerable effects of extreme weather events and climate change have only added to the burden of india's rural poor with majority of india's rural districts witnessing an increasing number of vector borne diseases, cholera, dysentery, jaundice, diarrhoea and cancer the who estimates that, in india, about 38 million people are affected by waterborne diseases each year, of which over 75 per cent are children, nearly 8 lakh deaths are attributed to contaminated water and more than 4 lakh deaths can be attributed to diarrhoea alonewith 67 per cent of india's population living in rural areas it is imperative on the part of both the state governments and the central government to step up its heavy metal water contamination, prevention and mitigation activities by providing potable water, ensuring proper drainage system and providing piped water to every household incorporating the new article under the directive principles of state policy of the constitution would act as guidelines by the constitution to the state in its policy formulationat present, water is a state subject and is considered as the primary responsibility of the state government however, under the national rural drinking water programme(nrdwp), the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, government of india provides technical and financial assistance to the states to provide safe and adequate drinking water to the rural populationit has been noted that there exist large scale discrepancies when it comes to providing safe and piped potable water especially to the rural population across different states in india as per census-2011 report, 3080 per cent of the rural households in the country get tap water and 7060 per cent of the urban households of the country are covered with tap water supply access to safe water varies greatly from state to state greater than 50 per cent of the rural population in maharashtra and gujarat have access to treated water while, in bihar, less than 2 per cent of the rural population receives treated water the state governments are facing funds crunch to make proper arrangements for piped and potable water especially in rural areasthe bill, therefore, seeks to amend the constitution with a view to—(a) put an obligation on the state to ensure access to safe potable water to every household; and(b) transfer entry 17 of list-ii, state list pertaining to 'water', to list-iii, concurrent list so that the parliament ie, central government along with the respective state governments can play the dual role in the field of development of agriculture and sustainable use of water to meet the growing needs of the society hence this billnew delhi;rajiv pratap rudynovember 27, 2017 annexure extract from the constitution of india seventh  schedule    list ii  state  list     17 water, that is to say, water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power subject to the provisions of entry 56 of list i      list iii  concurrent  list    47 fees in respect of any of the matters in this list, but not including fees taken in any court      lok   sabha————abillfurther to amend the constitution of india————(shri rajiv pratap rudy, mp)