Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing clean tap water to every home is becoming successful. More than 11 crore households in the country now have access to the tap water connection. This represents 56.84 per cent of rural households in the nation.
Nearly 123 districts and more than 1.53 lakh villages of India have reported ‘Har Ghar Jal‘. The initiative faced disruptions since its launch in 2019, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, despite this, within a short span of three years, the mission has progressed relentlessly.
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PM Modi congratulates beneficiaries
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised the effort and congratulated the beneficiaries of this mission. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, “A great feat, indicative of the ground covered to ensure ‘Har Ghar Jal’ to the people of India. Congratulations to all those who have benefitted from this initiative and compliments to those working on the ground to make this Mission a success.”
Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat lauds achievement
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, has also lauded the achievement. “11 crore tap connections! The vision of our PM Sh. Narendra Modi ji, the relentless pursuit of the goals set out for #JalJeevanMission by the ministry and the effort of our team on the ground has made this mega milestone possible.”
Infrastructural boost for water availability
On January 25, 2023 Bharat Lal, Director General, National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), has said that as per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission, in the next six years, i.e. 2019-10 to 2025-26, Rs 1.72 crore is being provided to the Panchayats to manage water resources. He further added that the concept of inter-basin transfer or inter-linking of rivers is also being promoted.
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Jal Jeevan Mission
The ‘Jal Jeevan Mission‘ was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019. The vision of this project is to provide a tap water supply to every rural household by 2024. At the time of the launch, only 3.23 crore out of 19.35 crore rural households had access to tap water connections.
Under the JJM, quality-affected villages, aspirational districts, SC/ST majority villages, water-scarce regions, and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages are prioritized for providing tap water connection.