Bhubaneswar, July 11: The Central grant to Odisha under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the year 2021-22 has been increased to Rs 3,323.42 Crore, against Rs 812.15 Crore in 2020-21, said an official release.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat while approving this four-fold increase in allocation has assured full assistance to the State for making provision of tap water supply in every rural home by March, 2024.
According to a Jal Shakti Ministry statement, at the start of the Mission in 2019, out of a total of 18.93 Crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 Crore (17%) had tap water connections. During the last 22 months, despite Covid-19 pandemic resulting in lockdowns and repeated disruptions, Jal Jeevan Mission has been implemented with speed and 4.5 Crore households have been provided with tap water connections. With the increase in coverage by 23.5%, presently 7.69 Crore (40.6%) rural households across the country have tap water supply. Goa, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have achieved 100% household with assured tap water supply and have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’. Following the principle of the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, the motto of the Mission is that ‘no one is left out’ and every household in a village should be provided with tap water connection. At present, in 69 districts and more than 99 thousand villages, every household has tap water supply.
On August 15, 2019, at the time of launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, only 3.10 lakh (3.63%) households had tap water connections. Since then, 22.84 lakh households in the State have been provided with tap water connections. Thus, in Odisha, out of a total of 85.66 lakh households, now 25.95 lakh households (30.3%) have tap water supply. In 2021-22, the State has planned to provide tap water connections to 21.31 lakh households, 22.53 lakh tap water connections in the year 2022-23 and 18.87 lakh tap water connections in 2023-24 to achieve tap water supply for every rural household.
In his letter to the Chief Minister of Odisha, Jal Shakti Minister Shekhawat has emphasised that the work of providing tap connections should start in all the villages so that the state can provide tap water supply to every household by March, 2024.
