Hyderabad: Telangana is the only major State to have achieved cent per cent tap water connection to every household in the country, particularly in rural households. Other smaller States and Union Territories that have achieved the feat include Goa, Puducherry, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Telangana launched Mission Bhagiratha programme to provide piped drinking water supply to every household in the State way back in August, 2016. Inspired by the State government’s initiative, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre launched the Jal Jeevan Mission in August, 2019. As on date, the State government has provided tap water connection to more than 54 lakh rural households as well as another 20 lakh urban households in the State at an expenditure of more than Rs 45,000 crore.
While other States are highly dependent on funding from the Union government to provide drinking water connection to their population, a major portion of the money required for Mission Bhagiratha came from Telangana State’s own treasury. So far, the Centre has allocated only Rs 2,324.42 crore till 2021-22 budget year which is around six per cent of the total expenditure.
Replying to a question raised by Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Patel said the Central government, in partnership with the States, launched Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, to make provision of tap water connection to every rural household by 2024, with an estimated outlay of Rs 3.6 lakh crore. As on August 15 of 2019, about 3.23 crore of total 18.93 crore households in rural areas had tap water connections. As on July 27 of 2021, 7.82 crore of total 19.12 crore rural households have tap water connections.
The Centre along with the States, was making efforts to provide piped drinking water supply to around 10.24 crore rural households covering nearly 54 per cent of the nation’s total households by March of 2022.
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