New Delhi, (Samajweekly) All rural households from two more districts of Haryana – Jind and Palwal – are now connected with tap water supply under ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme, taking the number to 21 out of 22, the Jal Shakti Ministry said on Wednesday.
Under the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has set a target of providing 55 litres of clean drinking water per person per day to all households.
Once the remaining district, Mewat, which has 82 per cent households currently connected with piped water supply, gets 100 per cent tap water, Haryana will join the states of Goa, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar, Puducherry, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli that have already achieved the 100 per cent tap connections under the Jal Jeevan mission, the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement.
Bihar 85.18 per cent, Gujrat 84.32 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 79.67 per cent, and Punjab 81.57 per cent are the other high-ranking states that are aiming at 100 per cent connections as soon as possible.
Ministry officials said, all households of Mewat district will have tap water connections latest by early September. According to officials, there are close to 31 lakh rural households in Haryana.
In August 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme in view of the problem of drinking water in rural India, only 17.6 lakh rural households (57.04 per cent) in Haryana were getting drinking water from the tap. In less than two years, 30.68 lakh rural households of the state have started getting clean drinking water from their taps, the officials claimed.
The ministry officials added that 6,045 village panchayats and 6,638 villages have secured the distinction of becoming ‘Har Ghar Jal Gaon’ in Haryana. Similarly, all 12,988 schools and 21,789 Anganwadis are now connected with piped water supply in the state.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has reassured that Haryana would not face any problem of funds in providing water connection to every household under the mission.
“In the current financial year, about Rs 1,120 crore have been allocated for this scheme, he said. The amount is more than seven times against the allocation of Rs 149.95 crore in the financial year 2019-2020 and about four times against the allocation of Rs 289.52 crore in 2020-2021. In the current financial year, about Rs 257 crore have been released by the Central government to the state,” the minister said.
