82% rural households in Punjab have tap water: Union Minister

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 3

More than 82 per cent of the rural households in Punjab have tap water connections. More than 34 per cent of these came after the Jal Jeevan Mission by the Centre was launched on August 15, 2019, said Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel, in reply to a question by Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Partap Singh Bajwa during the ongoing Parliament session on Monday.

Punjab has a total of 34.73 lakh households, of which 28.68 lakh have tap water availability.

At the same time, Haryana has more than 98 per cent rural households having regular water connections. As many as 30.50 lakh out of 30.97 lakh houses have tap water connections. Haryana got 12.84 lakh water connections after 2019.

Himachal Pradesh has about 79 per cent houses in the rural areas with tap water facility. Official data showed that as many as 13.63 lakh out of 17.04 lakh have water in their homes. More than six lakh of the total came after 2019. All rural schools and anganwaris in Punjab and Haryana have water. Himachal also has all 17,669 anganwaris , except one, having the facility.

Patel said when the Jal Jeevam Mission was launched on August 15, 2019, only 3.23 crore of the total 19.12 crore had the tap water in their homes, which was only 17 per cent of the total households. After the launch of the mission, at least 4.62 crore more homes had been added, taking the total to 7.85 crore which is more than 41 per cent of the total.

Reacting to the reply, Bajwa said “I appreciate the state government’s efforts under the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ programme. It is good to know that 100 per cent of anganwaris and schools in Punjab have tap water connections”.