Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, April 15

A sum of Rs. 423.64 crore was spent to achieve the mammoth task of providing tap water supply to each and every rural household under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the state so far, the government has confirmed. Punjab has got Rs. 402.24 crore Central grant under the JJM during the last fiscal 2021-22, of which a sum of Rs. 264.77 crore was still lying unspent, official figures have revealed.

Sharing details, the Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Vini Mahajan, told The Tribune, that every state was allocated Central grants under the JJM to realise Prime Minister’s dream of providing clean tap water supply to each and every home in the country by 2024.

OFFICIALSPEAK

Only 8 lakh homes, accounting for 2.64 per cent, in Japanese Encephalitis-Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (JE-AES)-affected districts had tap water supply. In the last two years, tap water supply has increased four fold from 24 lakh (7.17 per cent) to 1.37 crore (40 per cent) households in 117 aspirational districts across the country. Besides, over 1.15 crore households (38 per cent) have been provided with tap water supply in 61 districts affected by JE-AES. — Vini Mahajan, Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti

The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched by the Prime Minister on August 15, 2019, when only Rs. 3.23 crore, which accounted for 17 per cent of the total Rs. 19.27 crore households in the country, had tap water connections.

“Since then, over 100 districts, 1,138 blocks, 66,328 village panchayats and 1,36,803 villages have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’ under the JJM,” Mahajan disclosed.

She said Haryana, Telangana, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, had already achieved 100 per cent coverage by ensuring clean and fresh tap water supply to their every rural household, other states, including Punjab (99.63 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (92.89 per cent), Gujarat (94.53 per cent) and Bihar (90 per cent) were close to achieve ‘Har Ghar Jal’ shortly.

The financial progress of the northern states, compiled by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, a copy of which is with The Tribune, indicated that Punjab had unspent amount of Rs. 110.36 crore under the JJM at the beginning of the last fiscal 2021-22 and it got another Central grant of Rs. 402.24 crore to reach the total fund availability of Rs. 512.6 crore, of which the agrarian state spent Rs. 247.83 crore, which accounted for 48.35 per cent of the total Central grant available, besides incurring expenditure of Rs. 175.81 crore from its own share, which took the total expenditure under the JJM in the state in 2021-22 to Rs. 423.64 crore.

Among other states, Haryana got Central share of Rs. 559.98 crore in 2021-22 out of which Rs. 290.63 crore was spent and Rs. 280.47 crore expenses were incurred from its own share, Gujarat got Rs. 2,557.96 crore, spent Rs. 2,124.85 crore from Central share and Rs. 2,226.25 crore from state share, Himachal Pradesh got Rs. 2,239.2 crore, spent Rs. 1,420.94 crore from Central share and Rs. 146,73 crore from state share, Jammu and Kashmir got Rs. 604.18 crore, spent Rs. 112.43 crore from Central share and Rs. 7.38 crore from state share, Ladakh got Rs. 340.68 crore, spent Rs. 103.79 crore from Central share, Maharashtra got Rs. 1,666.64 crore, spent Rs. 377.98 crore from Central share and Rs. 470.46 crore from state share, Rajasthan got Rs. 2,345.08 crore, spent Rs. 1,919.83 crore from Central share and Rs. 1,592.99 crore from state share, Uttarakhand got Rs. 1,082.85 crore, spent Rs. 597.98 crore from Central share and Rs. 67.4 crore from state share, and Goa got Rs. 22.77 crore, spent Rs. 14.03 crore from Central share and Rs. 17.98 crore from state share to execute the works under the JJM during the last financial year.

Rs 423.64 cr spent to provide tap water supply in Punjab
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