NEW DELHI:
Meghalaya is all set to provide potable tap water supply to the remaining 3.81 crore rural households of the State by this year.
Central government statistics in possession of The Meghalayan said that of the total 5.90 crore rural households in the State, as many as 2.09 crore households have been provided with tap water connections as on February 7, 2022 under central government’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme.
At the time of launching of JJM scheme on August 15, 2019, hardly 0.05 crore rural households have been provided with tap drinking water in Meghalaya.
As per the statistics, Assam has a maximum number of rural households and in spite of providing potable tap water to 19.38 crores rural households, 43.97 crores rural households still lack this basic facility.
Aware of the fact, a Parliamentary Committee has recently recommended that the central government must provide the State of Assam with requisite financial and infrastructural support to meet its targets by the year of 2024 as envisaged by the State.
The Committee is also of the considered view that mere availability and installation of tap-water infrastructure does not mitigate the needs of the people. “The duration and quantity of water available to the households in the NER should also be ensured,” the committee suggests.
Government of India is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), since 15th August, 2019 in partnership with all States to make provision of potable tap water supply to every rural household of the country by 2024.
Each State has planned their saturation year to make provision of tap water supply to every rural household separately.
In the year 2020-21 as much as Rs 11,000 crore had been allocated under JJM mission for all States out of which Rs 1,100.0 crore was allocated for Northeast. The allocation was, however, increased in 2021-22 to Rs 45,011 crore for all the States out of which Rs 4,501.1 crore was allocated for the Northeast.