April 6, 2022
Md Nadimul Haque’s Special Mention on addressing the lacks of the Jal Jeevan Mission
The Union Government had set a target of 49 million households to provide piped water connections under Jal Mission in FY 2021-22. However, the Government has been able to cover only 19.8 million households which is far below the target. The pace of providing piped water connections in FY 2022-23 is also likely to drop by 60 per cent which is extremely concerning. Some States such as Uttar Pradesh are also lagging behind where the State Government has been able to provide hardly 6.5 lakh connections. Bengal, on the other hand, has outperformed all other States. It ranked first among all States in terms of providing tap water connections to households since November, 2021. Bengal has provided tap water connections to approximately 23 lakh households in the current fiscal year and has set a target of providing tap water connections to 1 crore 77 lakh families by 2024 under its Jal Swapna project. Bengal can be a golden example of how the targets of providing water connections to all households can be achieved in an expedited manner without any lags. I urge the Government to take steps to ensure that the work under the Jal Mission project is expedited to ensure that every household in our country has access to water.
