Shekhawat attacks Congress; says Punjab failed to spend JJM funds

Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 16

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday counterattacked the Congress for its charge that his ministry failed to spend funds, saying it was due to non-BJP governments, including Punjab government, for failure to utilise the central funds.   

Replying to a discussion on working of the Jal Shakti Ministry, Shekhawat hit out at Congress member Digvijaya Singh for questioning his administrative capability, saying the latter has been exiled from Madhya Pradesh for more than 10 months now due the failure of the government led by him in providing basic infrastructural amenities such as water, electricity and roads.

He made it obvious that this was his response to Digvijaya Singh on his personal attack and questioning his administrative capability.

Initiating the discussion, Singh had said that the Jal Shakti Ministry failed to spend the funds and questioned the government’s water management policy.

Shekhawat said under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the Centre had provided Rs 227 crore in the financial year 2019-20 to the Punjab government which could spend only Rs 73 crore.

The state was allocated Rs 363 crore for implementation of the JJM in 2020-21, but it has not been able to avail the same, he said.

The norm is that before availing the succeeding cache of funds for a recurring central scheme, a state government has to furnish details of expenditure of the preceding funds taken by it.

He named the poll bound state of TMC-ruled West Bengal, JMM-led Jharkhand, and Congress-ruled states of Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as conspicuous laggards in implementation of JJM, falling much behind the national average figure.

Responding to protests from opposition benches, including Congress member from Punjab Pratap Singh Bajwa who wanted to know the reason for Punjab government not spending the funds, Shekhawat shot back: “It is for the Punjab government to explain.”

He lauded the opposition ruled state of Telangana for 100 per cent coverage of rural households under the scheme.

He said while the Congress governments provided piped drinking water to just above three crore rural households during 55 years of its rule, the present Union government has provided piped water supply to additional 3.85 crore households in 15 months under JJM.

He said the government is in the process of mapping the aquifers to know the status of underground water across the country. Details of it would be shared with all the village panchayats.

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