The Kerala government has pumped in ₹327.76 crore more as its share for Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), but data show that the State has a long way to go before it achieves the target for the Centrally assisted rural household tap connection scheme.
The latest allocation for the scheme takes the total State government funding in the past two years to ₹2,824 crore, according to Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal. The government had sanctioned ₹1,616 crore the previous year and ₹880 crore in two installments earlier this year.
The JJM aims at providing functional household tap connections (FHTC) to all rural homes in the country by 2024.
Total target
On the other hand, the State has been struggling to meet the annual targets set for the JJM. Although the State reached the halfway to the overall target of 70.7 lakh rural households earlier this year, coverage continues to lag at 51.69% (36.59 lakh households), according to Union Jal Shakti Ministry updates.
Among the 14 districts, only six — Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Kannur — have more than 50% coverage at present. Kasaragod is at the bottom of the list with 29.9% coverage. At the national level, only Jharkhand (46.15%), Rajasthan (44.94%) and West Bengal (39.82%) are below Kerala in coverage.
Also, the State has only one block, 44 grama panchayats and 62 villages certified with ‘Har Ghar Jal’ status, which means that all households in the unit concerned have tap water connection.
