Centre allocates Rs 3,323 crore to Odisha under Jal Jeevan Mission for 2021-22 FY

BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has allocated Rs 3,323 crore to Odisha under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) for the current 2021-22 financial year. The central scheme aims to provide clean tap water to every rural households by March 2024.
The grant to the state during the current financial year is a four-fold increase as Odisha had received Rs 812 crore in the previous 2020-21 financial year, said an official statement.
While approving the allocation to the state, Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat assured full assistance to the state for making provision of tap water supply in every rural home by March 2024.
Official sources said, there has been significant improvement in ensuring tap water connection to the rural households since launching of the JJM on August 15, 2019 across the country.
In Odisha, only 3.10 lakh households of total 85.66 lakh rural households had tap water connections, accounting to 3.63%. In the past three years, over 22.84 lakh households in the state have been provided with tap water connections under JJM while total 30.3% rural households with tab water connection.
While the panchayati raj and drinking water department has been the implementing agency for JJM in the state, it has targeted to provide tap water connections to 21.31 lakh rural households during the current financial year. Similarly, additional 22.53 lakh tap water connections are planned in the year 2022-23 and another 18.87 lakh tap water connections in 2023-24.
According to official sources, the Union Jal Shakti minister in a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik, has urged to start the work to provide tap water connections should start in all the villages so that the state can achieve the target of covering all rural households by March 2024.
As the scheme is being implemented with 50:50 fund sharing pattern between the Centre and the state government, total fund available for ensuring piped dinking water to all rural households for 2021-22 financial year will be over Rs 6,500 crore (with state’s matching share).
Apart from allocation under the JJM, the 15th finance commission has also sanctioned Rs 1,002 crore to the panchayati raj institutions of the state to manage water supply in villages and to ensure improved sanitation in villages.
Besides tap water connection to rural households, the Centre has also been emphasizing on providing tap water to children in schools and anganwadi centres. In Odisha, as many as 25,820 schools (47%) and 11,913 anganwadi centres (22%) have been provided tap water connections.
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