New Delhi
The Center on Tuesday cleared funds for five of the 12 states that have signed new agreements to implement the revamped Jal Jeevan Mission, the flagship program for piped water, which aims to curb irregularities and promote verifiable delivery outcomes.
With this, the Center has resumed fresh allocations for the programme, which aims to connect nearly 194 million rural households in India with tap water connections. The government had temporarily suspended funding to the states while it worked to redraw the program framework to impose stricter controls.
Total amount $1,561.53 crores issued. The state of Uttar Pradesh has been given $792.93 Crore, Chhattisgarh $Rs 536.53 crore, Madhya Pradesh $154.02 Crore, Odisha $65.31 Crore and Maharashtra $12.74 Crores.
“To ensure transparency, accountability and improve service delivery, a structured verification system has been put in place, which states have to fulfill before funds are released,” Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Ashok KK Meena said. The funds were released after mandatory compliance conditions were met.
The Union Cabinet on March 10 approved Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) 2.0, marking a restructuring and reorientation of the mission from an “infrastructure-centric approach to a service delivery model”.
As part of this restructuring process, the Cabinet approved total expenditures for $8.69 lakh crore, of which the Centre’s share will be $3.59 crore, up from $Rs 2.08 lakh crore has been spent since the launch of the program in 2019-2020.
The scheme aims to provide tap water connections to all 193.5 million rural households in India by the end of 2024. According to the programme’s dashboard, 158.2 million households, or 81.5% of the total, currently have a functional tap connection. Baseline coverage was approximately 16.72% when the mission was launched. The program was extended until December 2028 last year.
