Jal Jeevan Mission, which was gloomed by fangs of corruption and had several senior officials including a senior IAS officer and former water minister jailed, has now finally taken off after a lull.
The project was under scanner for quite some time after Directorate of Enforcement and ACB arrested contractors and senior officials in Rs 900 crore scam, which involved false reporting of work completion and fake certificate for winning contract. The then Additional Chief Secretary PHED Subodh Agarwal and former PHED Minister Mahesh Joshi are still in jail.
The central government since then has been cautious in releasing funds in Jal Jeevan Mission. However, with the renewed push from Chief Secretary V Srinivas and the department, the mission is slowly getting back on track.
Rajasthan Chief Secretary V srinivas, reviewed the progress of Jal Jeevan Mission and asked officials to complete all the works of the mission in a quality manner within the stipulated time frame. The mission is being implemented under the Jal Jeevan Mission Director Rajan Vishal, who is also the ex-officio Secretary of PHED.
The centre sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission aimed at providing tap connection to every household has sanctioned little more than Rs one lakh crore in Rajasthan for various schemes.
“In 2019, only 11 % of the total 107.74 lakh rural households had tap connections. The number has now gone up to 63.61 lakh covering 59 % of the total households. Besides, in 12,095 villages, every household has tap connection while in 6,138 villages every house has even been certified also,” said a senior official, who is closely monitoring the progress.
Ramp up certification work
The Chief Secretary directed officials to ramp up the progress in Sujalam Bharat ID creation, Har Ghar Jal reporting and certification. He also urged them to complete the financial closure of all the schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission.
Srinivas also emphasised on transferring over 2,500 drinking water schemes to Gram Panchayats and the local community for managing rural drinking water infrastructure under the Jal Arpan programme.
Inter departmental Coordination important for success
V Srinivas said that the role of the Panchayati Raj Department is important in the operation and maintenance of rural drinking water schemes.
For the successful implementation of this project, coordination of Panchayatiraj Department and Finance Department is important under the revised guidelines of Operation and Maintenance.
