100,000 tap water connections provided daily, 4.5 mn since April: Govt

India is providing 100,000 households with tap water connections daily and has provided around 4.5 million connections since April, Jal Shakti Ministry said in a press statement.

The Jal Jeevan Mission programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 and between then and March 2020, 8.483 million rural households were provided with tap connections, the statement said. “In this endeavour, states like Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh lead with excellent performance.”

For 2020-21, Rs 23,500 crore was allocated for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. At present, more than Rs 8,000 crore of Central funds are available with the States and UTs for the implementation of the programme.

Besides, in 2020-21, 50 per cent of 15th Finance Commission grants to rural local bodies, which amount to Rs 30,375 crore, have also been earmarked for water supply and sanitation. Half of this amount was released to the states on July 15.

A revalidation of baseline data by states shows there are 190.4 million rural households in the country, out of which 32.3 million households have already been provided with tap connections. “The objective is to cover approximately 160 million households in a time-bound manner while ensuring the functionality of already provided connections...This means 88,000 tap connections to be provided on a daily basis,” the press statement said.

The Jal Jeevan Mission is also a part of the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana aimed at providing employment to migrant labourers by creating public infrastructure and providing skilling opportunities in areas such as masonry, plumbing, electrical-aspects, motor-repairing among others.

“The tentative plan is to take up work in about 25,000 villages spread across 6 States,” the ministry said.