The State Government is scrambling to step up the pace of work on the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a Centrally assisted rural household water connection scheme which has fallen woefully short of the annual target in the State - in the coming months with the Central Government exerting pressure on it.
The Centre had warned Kerala in early January of the need to expedite the work, noting that at the current pace the State would need to provide tap connections to more than 25,000 households every day if it hoped to meet the connection target for the 2021-22 fiscal, which ends on March 31.
The State Minister for Water Resources, Roshy Augustine, told The Hindu on Saturday that a series of measures have been put in motion to ensure that maximum household tap connections are provided over the next six months. The Kerala Water Authority (KWA), the main implementation agency for JJM in the State, has been directed to speed up work, Mr. Augustine said. Efforts are also on to bring hesitant grama panchayats on board and deploy staff from other agencies under the Water Resources Department for accelerating the pace.
