Jal Jeevan Mission: Govt allocates Rs 3,323 crore to Odisha

The government has allocated Rs 3,323 crore for the current 2021-22 financial year to Odisha under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). The objective of the central scheme is to provide clean tap water to every rural household by March 2024. The grant to the state is a four-fold rise during the present fiscal year as Odisha received Rs 812 crore within the previous 2020-21 fiscal year. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Jal Shakti minister, assured complete assistance to the state to provide tap water supply in every rural home by March 2024 while approving the allocation to the state. The official sources told the media that there had been significant improvement in ensuring tap water connection to the rural households across the country since the launching of the JJM on August 15, 2019. In Odisha, accounting for 3.63%, only 3.10 lakh households of 85.66 lakh rural households had tap water connections. In the last three years, more than 22.84 lakh households within Odisha have been given tap water connections under JJM, while a total of 30.3% of rural households have tap water connections. While the drinking water department and Panchayati raj has been implementing JJM in the state, it has targeted to provide tap water connections to 21.31 lakh rural households during the current financial year. Similarly, another 18.87 lakh tap water connections are planned for 2023-24 and additional 22.53 lakh tap water connections in 2022-23. As the scheme is being executed with a 50:50 fund sharing pattern between the Centre and the state government, a total fund available for ensuring piped drinking water to all rural households for the 2021-22 fiscal year will be over Rs 6,500 crore. Other than the allocation under the JJM, the 15th finance commission has also approved Rs 1,002 crore to the Panchayati raj institutions of the state to manage water supply in villages and ensure enhanced sanitation in villages. Image Source Also read: Jal Jeevan Mission: Govt allocates Rs 5,009 cr grant for Karnataka Also read: Jal Jeevan Mission: Jharkhand to supply 9.5 lakh tap water connections