Centre working to ensure tap water connection for every household by 2024: Shekhawat

Union minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is working to ensure that every household in the country has a piped water connection by 2024.

Shekhawat was speaking to reporters here late on Saturday night as he arrived on a day-long visit to the district.

When PM Modi announced the Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, only 3,29,00,000 households out of 19 crore had tap water connections. Mothers and sisters in 83 per cent of the households had to fetch water, the minister said.

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Five crore tap water connections have been provided to households across states since the mission commenced in December 2019. The figure will soon cross 8 crore, he said.

As many as 1,10,000 villages have achieved 100 per cent success in providing tap connections to households, Shekhawat said.

Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh have achieved 80 per cent to 100 per cent of their targets under the Jal Jeevan Mission, he said.

Unfortunately, some states are lagging behind and Rajasthan is one of them, he added.

Shekhawat said he recently presided over a review meeting with Rajasthan government officials and found that only 10 per cent of the work under the mission had been completed.

The central government had approved a project to provide 83 lakh tap water connections and had also sanctioned a budget accordingly. However, the Rajasthan government has issued work orders for only 8 lakh connections so far.