UP gets a whopping Rs 10,870.5 cr under Jal Jeevan Mission, highest allocation in history

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New Delhi: The Centre has allocated a whopping Rs 10,870 crore to Uttar Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission for 2021-22, the highest allocation so far to any state, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said on Saturday (June 12).

The amount is more than four times what was allocated to the poll-bound state last year. The northern state will go to the polls in 2022. Uttar Pradesh has assured to achieve the goal of providing water to every rural household by 2024, the ministry said.

"The Union government has increased the Central allocation for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission to Uttar Pradesh to Rs. 10,870.50 crore. In 2019-20, the Centre allocated Rs 1,206 crore, which was increased to Rs 2,571 crore in 2020-21. Thus, this year, the central allocation for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in Uttar Pradesh has increased four-fold," the ministry said.

The ministry had last week announced Rs 6,998.97 crore to West Bengal, the second-highest allocation to a state under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have been allocated Rs 3,410 crore and Rs 5,117 crore, respectively. The northeastern states have been allocated a total of Rs 9,262 crore.

Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, Maharashtra has been allocated to Rs 7,064.41 crore, while Chhattisgarh got Rs 1,908.96 crore. The Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide tap water connections to all rural households by 2024. The Union budget for 2021-22 has earmarked Rs 50,000 crore for this ambitious scheme.

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, during his last meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had assured to provide all assistance to the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Adityanath had also assured that his government would ensure tap water connection to every rural home by 2024 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the announcement of the scheme on August 15, 2019.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are 2.63 crore households in 97,000 villages, out of which, now 30.04 lakh (11.3 per cent) households have tap water supply. Only 5.16 lakh (1.96 per cent) households had tap water supply before the scheme. In the last 21 months, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the state has provided a tap water supply to 24.89 lakh (9.45 per cent) households. Despite this, there are about 2.33 crore households without tap water supply in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

(Inputs from PTI)