Jal Jeevan Mission |'Karnataka not releasing matching grant': Union Minister V Somanna

"Many states/UTs have achieved the target of 100% rural household tap water connections... But, despite persistent support and timely guidance from the Government of India, the Government of Karnataka could not achieve the target on time," Somanna posted on X.

New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti V Somanna on Wednesday said that the Karnataka government failed to release a matching grant to take up centrally sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), piped drinking water to every household scheme, in the state.

"Many states/UTs such as Telangana, Goa, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram and Puducherry, have achieved the target of 100% rural household tap water connections. But, despite persistent support and timely guidance from the Government of India, the Government of Karnataka could not achieve the target on time," Somanna posted on X.

Somanna posted on X in reply to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah posting a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting on Monday here, on 'X'.

In his plea, the CM said that the state has spent Rs 35,698 crore to implement the JJM scheme while the Centre has released only Rs 11,786.63 crore. The remaining Rs 13,004.63 crore is yet to be released by the Jal Shakti Ministry, the CM said

In his rebuttal, Somanna said, "Karnataka lagging behind the scheme due to non releasing of state matching share for the amount allocated by the Central Government. During the period from 2019-20 to 2024-25, the Jal Shakti Ministry allocated Rs 28,623.89 crore to the state to implement the scheme."

"However, the state was able to draw only Rs 11,760 crore and spent Rs 11,097.92 crore within the Mission period. Due to non submission of requisite documents timely, the state government was not able to utilise the entire amount allocated by the Centre," the Union Minister added.

The state had approved 66,344 projects with the expenditure of Rs 69,487.60 crore under the scheme. Out of which, work order was not issued by the state government till 15 March, 2024 for works worth Rs 1,716 crore.

Further, out of 66,344 projects, only 24,888 (37.5 per cent) projects were physically completed and only 9,325 (14.05 per cent) projects were financially completed by 31 March, 2024.

"Had the state cooperated in implementing the scheme, by this time 100 per cent coverage in the entire state in providing piped water connection to each individual rural household could have been achieved," he said.

Somanna also insisted that the Centre was already ready to extend all cooperation and aid to Karnataka in achieving desired results in the scheme.

"In 2019, only 24.20 per cent of rural households in Karnataka were covered with tap water connections. Similar situations prevailed in most of the other states. In order to provide safe and clean drinking tap water to every rural household in the country, our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modiji envisioned the idea of Jal Jeevan Mission and announced the scheme on 15 August, 2019, since then the picture of tap water connections in rural households started changing rapidly. Presently, because of persistent support and efficient guidance of Government of India the coverage of tap water in rural households in the state of Karnataka has gone up up to 86.34 per cent," Somanna said.