Rajasthan's JJM connections may be better than many states, says PHED

While Rajasthan has ranked at the bottom of the Jal Jeevan Mission's (JJM) dashboard, engineers from the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) believe that the state may be performing better than what is indicated on the water ministry's web portal, according to a report by The Times of India.

 

JJM was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 with the aim to provide safe and adequate drinking water through household tap connections to rural parts of the country by 2024.

 

Ahead of 2019, reportedly, fewer than 1.2 million, out of an estimated 10.6 million, rural households in the state had tap water connections. Since the launch of the mission, more than 3.5 million household connections have been provided. Currently, at least 4.6 million households in the state now have tap water connections.

 

According to PHED, the state appears to be at a disadvantage as the JJM dashboard determines state rankings on its platform based on the percentage of rural household tap water connections. This includes the tap water connections that existed before the mission began. Therefore, the efforts of the state over the last four years since the mission's launch are not adequately represented.

 

Rajasthan currently stands at rank 35 out of 38, just ahead of Lakshadweep, West Bengal, and Jharkhand on the JJM dashboard, since cumulatively only 44 per cent of households in Rajasthan have tap water connections. PHED officials, according to the report, argue that the progress the state has made within the last four years surpasses that of several states, including Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, and Kerala.

 

Officials also, reportedly, recognised the challenges posed by Rajasthan's landscape. Area-wise, Rajasthan is the largest state in the country. It also has a unique terrain that can increase the cost of projects. Moreover, Rajasthan has a scattered population, with the distance between populated areas being greater than in other states.

 

These are some of the reasons why the state government wanted to switch to surface water sources for most areas to make JJM more feasible. However, this would require more time and resources to implement.

 

This report comes days after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami accused the Congress-led state government of not utilising "thousands of crore of rupees of central funds given to Rajasthan" under JJM.