MAHARASHTRA AIMS to provide 27.45 lakh drinking water tap connections to 13 districts, 131 blocks and over 12,000 villages during 2021-2022.
This was proposed in its annual plan under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to the central government at a virtual meeting last month.
There are 1.42 crore rural households in the state, out of which 91 lakh have access to piped drinking water. For the ongoing financial year, the state is expected to receive central government funding worth Rs 3,000 crore towards the implementation of this programme.
Last year, the state government provided 37.15 lakh connections. As of May 3, a total of 8,629 villages have benefitted from the tap water connections since the mission was launched in 2019. Wardha, Dhule, Kolhapur and Satara remain ahead in the total number of tap connections under this mission.
According to the current year’s plan, the state plans to impart training to 42,000 personnel at state and district levels, who are engaged in water and sanitation missions, and engineering cadre along with programme management unit staff this year. Skill training will be offered to an additional 72,000 trades, including masons, plumbers, fitter, motor mechanics, pump operators, whose supplementary services will be required in building these water supply services. The state has also adopted to undertake district field water testing labs.
Since the launch of the ‘Har ghar jal’ programme of JJM, Jalgaon district along with 20 blocks and 7,737 villages have obtained 100 per cent coverage of drinking water through taps in households.