Hyderabad: Telangana State has become the first bigger state in the country to provide 100 percent tap water connections to every household.
The minister of state for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday informed Lok Sabha that earlier, this scheme was successfully achieved under the “Jal Jeewan Scheme” in Goa, Puducherry and Andaman Nicobar islands.
In August 2016, the Telangana government started the “Mission Bhagiratha” program to provide tap water connections to all households.
Taking a leaf out of the Telangana state government initiative, the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in August 2019.
The state government has spent Rs.45,000 crores to install tap water connections to more than 54 lakh and 20 lakh households in the rural and urban areas respectively. Other states need to rely on the central government assistance to implement the scheme but the Telangana government has funded most of the project Mission Bhagiratha from its own state budget.
In the financial year 2021-22, the central government allocated Rs.2,324.42 which comprises of only 6 percent of the total project cost.
While replying to a question by Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy, the minister said that since August 2019, the central government allocated Rs.3.6 lakh crores under the Jal Jeevan scheme to provide tap water connections to every household in the rural areas till 2024.
He further said that the central government in co-operation with the state governments wants to ensure that around 10.24 crores rural household gets tap water connection till March 2022.