AP Gets Rs 3,182 Crore Under Jal Jeevan Mission

To translate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of providing clean tap water to every household, the Centre today increased the grant given to Andhra Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission for 2021-22 to Rs 3,182.88 crore from the earlier allocation of Rs 790.48 crore in 2020-21.

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has not only approved this four-fold increase in allocation, but he has also assured full assistance to AP in its efforts to ensure the provision of tap water to every rural home in the state by 2024.

At the start of the Mission in 2019, out of a total of 19.20 crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 crore (17%) had a tap water supply.

Data reveals that during the last 21 months, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptions that came with repeated lockdown, the Jal Jeevan Mission has been implemented with speed. 4.29 crore households have been provided with piped connections. With the increase in coverage by 22%, presently 7.52 crore (39.22%) rural households across the country have access to tap water supply. Goa, Telangana, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry have achieved 100% household connections in rural areas, becoming regions that have been able to fulfil the 'Har Ghar Jal' vision. Following the principle of the Prime Minister's vision of ‘Sab ka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas', the motto of the mission is that none is to be left out, and every household in every village should be provided with a stable water connection. At present, in more than 92,000 villages across 62 districts, every household has tap water supply.

In Andhra Pradesh, out of a total of 95.66 lakh households in 18,650 villages, 46.89 lakh (49.02%) have been provided with tap water connections. On August 15 2019, at the time of the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission, 30.74 lakh (32.14%) households had tap water supply. In 21 months, 16.14 lakh (16.88%) more households had been provided with tap water connections. This is less than the national increase of 22%.

AP needs to provide tap water connections to the remaining 48.77 lakh households to become a 'Har Ghar Jal' state. It has to accelerate its speed of implementation to meet the target within the stipulated time. The state government has planned to provide tap water connections to 32.47 lakh households in 2021-22, 12.28 lakh tap water connections in 2022-23 and 6 lakh tap water connections in 2023-24 to achieve this.

In the year 2020-21, AP was able to equip only 12.97 lakh homes with tap water connections. The water supply work to provide tap connections has not yet been started in 874 villages. The pace of implementation in the last quarter of 2020-21 was 2.92 lakh tap water connections per month. However, this dropped to about 74,379 tap water connections per month in April and May, 2021. The state needs to provide about 4 lakh connections per month to achieve the target set for 2021-22.

Urging the Jagan government to accelerate the pace of the implementation, Shekhawat wrote a letter to Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, emphasising the urgent need to start the work of providing tap connections in all of AP's villages to meet the 'Har Ghar Jal' target by March 2024.

In 2020-21, Rs 790.48 crore was allocated to the state under the scheme. Out of this, only Rs 297.62 crore was used. Thus, Rs 492.86 crore meant for increasing tap water supply coverage in rural areas was surrendered.

This year with a four-fold increase in allocation, an opening balance of Rs 146.65 crore, a Rs 242.91 crore shortfall in AP's share during last year and the matching state share for the current year, AP has Rs 6,805.71 crore for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission. With fund availability no longer being a constraint, Shekhawat urged the YSRCP government to improve its performance, in terms of the implementation of the scheme. He asked the government to fully utilise the funds through the speedy implementation of the scheme in order to benefit the people of the state.