Only three States, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya, have used all their allotted funds for creating water supply facilities in villages, under the Centre’s marquee Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Moreover, States such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu had utilised less than 25 % of the Central allocation, according to a report tabled by the Standing Committee on Water, chaired by Sanjay Jaiswal, BJP MP from Bihar.
The JJM aims to provide a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to all rural household under a ‘no one is left out’ motto. In 2019, out of about 18.93 crore households in rural areas, only about 3.23 crore (17%) had tap water connections. The Centre aims to provide the remaining 83% rural households with tap water supply by 2024.
The stated purpose of the mission is to provide long-term drinking water security in villages to avoid making emergency arrangements such as deploying ‘tankers’ or ‘trains’, etc., in rural areas.
Haryana, Telangana, Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, D & N Haveli and Puducherry have achieved cent percent target of providing tap water connections to households. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat have achieved more than 90% household coverage.
‘Inadequate’ allocations
The committee noted that despite the ambition of the mission, the nodal Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation had been allotted only ₹60,000 crore for 2022-23, instead of the ₹91,258 crore it had sought. Close to 53.52% of the rural households still required FHTC in different States/UTs, and allocations under the JJM for 2022-23 seemed to be “inadequate.”
The committee said it was “dismayed” to note the underutilisation of funds and indicated a “lack of financial prudence and fiscal discipline, thus, adversely affecting the implementation and monitoring of the programme as a whole.”
Ministry officials told the committee members during deliberations that 90 % of the pending work was confined to 13 major States. The reasons for delay included insufficient pipes and fluctuating price, competing demand from other water sources such as irrigation, financial management and online payment, disruptions caused due to COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of dependable local source of water, particularly in drought-prone areas.
