Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil on Monday said that the Jal Shakti Ministry had withheld funds to Karnataka under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) because the state failed to provide detailed replies to questions raised on the expenditure and execution of the scheme.
Replying to a question from Congress Rajya Sabha member G C Chandrashekhar in the Upper House, the Minister said that the JJM scheme was launched in 2019 and was originally supposed to end in March 2024.
The Centre had allocated Rs 3,804 crore to Karnataka for implementing piped water connections to rural households. However, during that period, the state did not release its matching share on time and failed to submit fund utilisation certificates to the Jal Shakti Ministry. The state also did not respond to several reminders sent by the Ministry seeking these utilisation certificates
The scheme period ended in March 2024, and the Karnataka government released funds to contractors only in April 2024, which fell in the next financial year.
Patil also pointed out that since the scheme deadline has now been extended up to 2028 to complete the remaining work, the state can still enter into a fresh MoU with the Jal Shakti Ministry and take up the pending works.
Insisting that funds were not being constrained unnecessarily, he said the Centre is ready to release money to any state, including Karnataka, provided proper documents are submitted.
The Minister further stated that the Karnataka government had diverted funds under the JJM to provide drinking water supply to Bengaluru city, whereas the Mission was clearly intended to provide tapped water connections to rural households only.
Earlier, Chandrashekhar, in his question, had stated that Karnataka received only Rs 570 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission for the 2024-25 financial year against the sanctioned Rs 3,804 crore, which amounted to just 15 per cent.