Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a letter to the Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb has expressed his happiness that the state had set the target of 2023 to provide 100% Functional Household Tap Connection by 2023 under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) but cautioned that the implementation of the mission should improve drastically to achieve this goal.
Low rate of household provided with Tap Water Connection
The mission has been able to provide only 7.63% of the household with tap connections while the number of total households in the state is 8.01 lakh and completing the mission in three years is a daunting task but the state has assured the Union Government that it had established a plan that will help them achieve the goal within the prescribed deadline.
Low Utilisation of Funds
Another issue has been the underutilization of suns by the state government. According to the statistics in 2019-20 the government had released a fund of Rs, 107.64 crores with an additional fund of Rs.37.73 crore. The state could only spend Rs 59.45 crore of this money which is 40 % of the total amount and which is the reason that the state has been able to provide only 45,769 households with connections in 2019-20.
Increased Funding for the next year
The Jal Shakti Minister has made it clear that providing potable water to people is a top priority for the government so, he has announced the increase in funding for the state from 107.64 crore to 156.61 crore and with the opening balance of 136.45 crores in the hand of state a total sum of Rs.320.16 crores will be used for the mission. The 15th Finance Commission Grants has also earmarked Rs. 191 crore for the year 2020-21 and 50 % of this amount has to be spent on water supply and sanitation.
Involvement of Village level institutions
The Union Government has also stressed on the fact that fast and efficient implementation of scheme can only be achieved through involving local communities at the village level. So a Village Action Plan (VAP) must be established for every village and community participation must be encouraged.
The Union Government is giving high priority to it because it thinks that due to the current crisis the message of hygiene can be delivered effectively to initiate behavioral change in people. The government concerns are also because at the same time states like Arunachal Pradesh which have managed to keep up the progress despite several challenges and other states need to follow suit.
