Odisha allocated over Rs 3,323 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission: Centre

New Delhi: The Centre has allocated over Rs 3,323 crore to Odisha for the Jal Jeevan Mission, a four-fold increase compared to the last fiscal, the Jal Shakti ministry said on Sunday.

While approving the four-fold increase in allocation, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has assured the state of full assistance for making provisions of tap water supply in every rural home by March 2024, the ministry stated.

"The central grant to Odisha under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the year 2021-22 has been increased to Rs 3,323.42 crore, which was Rs 812.15 crore in 2020-21," it said in a statement.

At the start of the mission in 2019, of the 18.93 crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 crore (17 per cent) had tap water connections.

In the last 22 months, despite the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in lockdowns and repeated disruptions, the Jal Jeevan Mission has been implemented with speed and 4.5 crore households have been provided with tap water connections, the ministry said.

With a 23.5-per cent increase in coverage, 7.69 crore (40.6 per cent) rural households across the country have tap water supply now, it added.

Goa, Telangana, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have achieved the "Har Ghar Jal" target of providing tap water supply to all the households.

Currently, every household in 69 districts and more than 99,000 villages in the country has tap water supply, the ministry said.

On August 15, 2019, at the time of the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission, only 3.10 lakh (3.63 per cent) households in Odisha had tap water connections. Since then, 22.84 lakh households in the state have been provided with tap water connections.

Of the 85.66 lakh households in Odisha, 25.95 lakh (30.3 per cent) have tap water supply now. The state has plans to provide tap water connections to 21.31 lakh households in 2021-22, 22.53 lakh households in 2022-23 and 18.87 lakh households in 2023-24.