Centre seeks to award all Jal Jeevan projects by year-end
Premium- The government is flooring the pedal to get all rural households covered under JJM by 2024
NEW DELHI : The government seeks to award work for the entire Jal Jeevan Mission project to contractors by the end of this year, as it aims to provide safe tap water to all rural households by 2024, when national elections are due.
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), unveiled by the Narendra Modi government in August 2019, had reached more than 51% of rural households as of 18 July. But nearly half of rural households with infrastructural challenges and large funding requirements remain to be covered. The covid disruptions affected the pace of the project, and the Centre picked up relatively easier work in the initial phase, leaving the bulk of the work to be completed now.
Also, with the new requirement that gram panchayats confirm that all households in their villages have received water supply, only about 11,000 villages, a mere 2% of India’s 600,000-odd villages, have been certified to have tap water connections in all houses.
“We have put work programme under JJM on accelerated mode. So, all planning and approvals for Har Ghar Jal (all households have water supplies) are now proposed to be completed by 30 September, while the awarding of all work programmes for the entire JJM will be wrapped up by 31 December. All states have agreed to complete the programme as scheduled. So, we remain confident that current timelines would be sufficient to cover all of the country’s rural households by 2024," Vini Mahajan, secretary, department of drinking water and sanitization, said in an interview.
The ₹3.6 trillion JJM programme has so far spent just over 25% of the total allocation to provide tap water supplies to about 152,000 villages.
Mahajan said that though the funds to support the Mission will rise in the coming years, funding the programme would not be a problem, considering that three-fourths of the budget were still to be used, and if more funds are required, the government will not shy away from providing financing.
“Though we have covered 152,000 villages with tap water supplies till now, we have formally approved projects of just 11,000 villages who have certified their work through a resolution passed by the gram panchayat. All projects under JJM will have to be ratified by gram panchayats with clear video evidence for the Centre to declare it Har Ghar Jal covered village," Mahajan said. At the announcement of the Mission on 15 August 2019, out of 192.7 million households, only 32.3 million (or 17%) households had tap water connections. However, in less than three years of the programme, 100 districts, 1,138 blocks, 66,328 gram panchayats, and 136,803 villages have received tap water connections. In Goa, Haryana, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, every rural household has tap water supplies. Many more states such as Punjab (99%), Himachal Pradesh (92.5%), Gujarat (92%) and Bihar (90%) are on the verge of becoming Har Ghar Jal-compliant this year.
A sum of ₹60,000 crore has been provided to the ₹3.6 trillion project in the Union budget for this fiscal.
In addition, ₹26,940 crore was allocated to states as the 15th Finance Commission tied grants for water and sanitation to rural local bodies last fiscal. There is assured funding of ₹1.42 trillion for five years to 2025-26. This huge investment in rural areas across the country is accelerating economic activities and boosting the rural economy, as well as creating employment opportunities in villages.
subhash.narayan@livemint.com
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