Govt: 2.5 crore rural homes get tap water; Telangana tops

Goa has become the first state in the country to provide a tap connection to all rural households, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said Tuesday.

Over 2.5 crore rural households have been provided tap connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) since it started in 2019, with Telangana and Bihar emerging as leading states, shows data available with the Jal Shakti Ministry.

The JMM aims at providing a functional household tap connection to every rural household by 2024. Goa has become the first state in the country to provide a tap connection to all rural households, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said Tuesday.

The data available on the mission dashboard shows that Telangana is the top performing state in terms of providing tap connections to a maximum proportion (69.56 per cent) of rural households, providing about 38 lakh tap connections.

Bihar, which is at second place, has covered 54.38 per cent of rural households, followed by Goa (24.3 per cent), Mizoram (23.19 per cent), Haryana (21.12 per cent), Manipur (20.78 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (19.99 per cent), Maharashtra (15.4 per cent), Uttarakhand (14.97 per cent), and J&K (14.94 per cent).

West Bengal is at the bottom of the list of 32 states and Union territories, covering only 1.44 per cent of rural households since the start of the mission. The others at the bottom of the list are Karnataka (1.4 per cent), Kerala (1.78 per cent), Ladakh (2.25 per cent), Assam (3.39 per cent), Jharkhand (3.36 per cent) and Rajasthan (3.69 per cent), among others.

Shekhawat said. “In the 14 months after launch, we have been successful in giving 2.55 crore new tap connections during global pandemic.”

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.