Centre releases Rs 40000-crore grant to states/UTs under JJM for 2021-22
The Centre has released over Rs 40,000 crore as grant to states and Union Territories (UTs) under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) during the 2021-22 financial year. The grant has been released based on the output of to states and UTs in provision of household tap water connections and utilization of available Central grant with matching state share.
An official statement said Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Haryana, Puducherry and Telangana have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’ states and UTs and every household in 106 districts and 1.45 lakh villages of the country have been given tap water supply.
Since the Jal Jeevan Mission was launched on August 15, 2019, more than 6 crore households have been provided with tap water connections, thus increasing the tap water supply from 3.23 crore (17 per cent) to more than 9.35 Crore (48.4 per cent) of rural households across the country
The Union Jal Shakti Ministry said the “speed and scale” of the projects being undertaken for making provision of clean drinking water to every rural household needs to be sustained to ensure all 6 lakh villages get tap water connections by 2024.
The Budget under Jal Jeevan Mission for 2022-23 has been enhanced to Rs 60,000 Crore by the Central Government. Water is central for all developmental works and providing potable water will go a long way in ensuring ‘ease of living’ to the rural population living in far flung areas across the country.
Despite CoVid-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns and disruption in last two years, implementation of JJM has made significant progress and during the current financial year, more than 2.06 crore rural households have been provided with tap water connections.
The JJM focuses on assured supply of potable water to every home and the work is not just limited to merely infrastructure creation. Massive training and skilling programme are being taken up to build the capacity of public health engineers, state and district officials and local community, ensuring active participation, regular monitoring and long-term sustainability of the infrastructure created. The mission envisages that Public Health Engineering Department and Gram Panchayats and village water & sanitation committees play the role of a public utility.
Women are the nuclei of the programme as they are the primary water managers. They are made part of Pani Samiti and Surveillance committee and are responsible for planning, maintenance, operation and management of the water supply system. As on date 4.78 lakh Pani Samiti have been constituted and over 3.91 lakh Village Action Plans have been developed which cover activities under water source strengthening, retrofitting of existing tap water connections, greywater management and maintenance of the infrastructure for the entire design cycle.
All the in-village water systems are being handed over to the Gram Panchayats, which will in times to come, become the custodians and will act as service providers for the public, said the statement.
