Rajasthan ranks 31st in Jal Jeevan Mission implementation

Jaipur: Rajasthan is at number 31 in the list of 33 states and union territories in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. The state is lagging behind due to the slow pace of the officers of the water supply department. So far, only 26.51 percent work has been done in Rajasthan. Earlier, the state was at 26th position. According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti report, there are six states and union territories, including Goa, Telangana, Puducherry, where 100 percent households have been provided with tap water connections. On the other hand, states like Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat and Punjab have also achieved 70 to 99 percent progress, but only 26.40 percent work has been done in Rajasthan.

Against the target of providing one crore connections, so far only 28 lakh tap connections have been provided. Only 1526 villages have 100% water connections here. Whereas in the neighbouring states of Rajasthan, the number of villages with 100% water connection has crossed 15,000. There are 16218 villages in Gujarat, 11933 in Punjab, 6803 in Haryana, 5521 in Madhya Pradesh, 5010 in Uttar Pradesh with 100% water connection. PHED and Ground Water Minister Mahesh Joshi and officials say that at the time of the launch of the mission, only 11 percent of rural households in Rajasthan had water connections. At that time 71 pc in Gujarat, 75 percent in Goa, 81 in Puducherry, 57 in Haryana, 49 in Punjab, 44 in Himachal, 46 in Andaman and Nicobar and about 34 percent in Maharashtra already had tap connections, which was much higher than Raj’s 11 pc. In this financial year, more than three lakh water connections have been given. The guidelines of the mission were released by the central government in December 2019. Before that, the number of households in the state having water connection at every household was 11 lakh 74 thousand 131. That is, before the mission, connections were very less in Rajasthan.