New Delhi: The Union Minister of Jal Shakti (Water Resources), Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, has written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik raising concern over the target lapses and underutilisation of funds by the state government under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ (JJM).
The minister said in the letter that in 2019-20 against the target of 15.61 lakh households, only 4.37 lakh (27.97 pc) households were provided with tap connections in the state under Jal Jeevan Mission. The mission aims to improve the lives of rural people by providing safe drinking water to every household through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) by 2024.
“This lag resulted in low utilisation of funds. Odisha was allocated Rs 364.74 crore in 2019-20, out of which it could utilise only Rs 275.02 crore,” the Union minister said in the letter.
Since the state was unable to utilise the funds fully, the Union minister has requested the Chief Minister to review the planning and implementation strategy for water supply schemes, so as to expedite physical progress and improve fund utilisation.
Shekhawat said that to take the mission forward in a seamless manner fund allocation to Odisha has been increased from Rs 364.74 crore to Rs 812.15 crore in 2020-21.
“Along with the unspent balance of Rs 90 crore, this year central allocation of Rs 812 crore and with the matching state share, Odisha will have Rs 1,805 crore for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in 2020-21,” the minister said.
He also requested for robust planning to ensure timely delivery of service with focus on retrofitting and augmentation of existing water supply systems in 21,516 villages.
Shekhawat said that the state should well utilise the existing resources through convergence of various programmes like MGNREGS and JJM.
“In 2020-21 fiscal, Odisha was allocated Rs 2,258 crore as 15th Finance Commission grants to PRIs and 50 per cent of this amount is mandatorily to be utilised for water supply & sanitation. This amount is to be spent on water supply, rainwater harvesting and water recycling as well as on ODF sustainability works in villages,” the minister said.