Conditions not fulfilled, state provided only Rs 130 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission

The Union Government has not provided funds to the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Sources say that this year, the state was to receive about Rs 900 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The financial year is about to end but the Jal Shakti Department has received just one installment of Rs 130 crore under the scheme.

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The sources say that as the Union Government has not released funds, the liabilities of the Jal Shakti Department towards the contractors have mounted to about Rs 500 crore. In Kangra district alone, the total liabilities of the contractors have increased to about Rs 130 crore. This is also adversely affecting the execution of schemes under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state as the contractors have refused to execute the work till their previous payments are released.

The sources say the Central Government has withheld the payments under the Jal Jeevan Mission as the state has not complied with some conditions under the scheme. The Union Government has laid a condition that water schemes developed under the mission should be handed over to the village panchayats for maintenance and execution. The state government, however, states that the proposal for handing over water schemes to village panchayats for execution and maintenance is not practically feasible. Similar experiments have failed earlier in Himachal Pradesh.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who heads the Jal Shakti Department, says that the Union Government has put a condition under the Jal Jeevan Mission that the water schemes should be handed over to village panchayats for maintenance and execution. This is practically impossible in Himachal Pradesh as the panchayats are heavily politicised. In case the schemes are handed over to the panchayats, it will create problems in the distribution of water.

Besides, the panchayats do not have their own resources for maintenance and execution of water schemes. “The matter is being taken up with the Union Government and I hope the pending payments to the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission will be released,” he adds.

During the stint of the previous BJP government, Rs 4,000 crore was sanctioned for Himachal under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The Congress after coming to power had accused the previous BJP government of buying pipes at a heavy cost under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state without augmenting sources to provide tapped water to every rural household in the state.

The sources say that the Union Government has launched the second phase of the mission in the 2025-26 budget. However, the conditions for the allocation of money under the mission have been made more stringent that the state will have to comply with.

Centre’s proposal not feasible: Govt

• The Union Government has laid a condition that water schemes developed under the Jal Jeevan Mission should be handed over to panchayats for maintenance and execution
• The state government, says that the proposal is not practically feasible as similar experiments have failed earlier in Himachal