Jal Jeevan Mission: State-Wise Planning Exercise started for 2021–22

The Ministry of Jal Shakti recently announced that it is to roll out annual planning exercise with the States and Union Territories.

What is the plan?

• The exercise is to be conducted by a committee chaired by the Secretary of Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• The Committee will take up two states or Union Territories per day.
• The Committee is to do a rigorous scrutiny of the proposed Annual Action Plan for the year 2021-22 prepared by the States and the Union Territories. The plan will then be finalised.

Priorities provided in the Annual Action Plan

The States and Union Territories have given priority to water quality affected areas, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe majority villages, villages in drought prone and desert areas in their proposed annual action plan.

Fund allocated to Jal Jeevan Mission

• The Government of India has allocated Rs 50,000 crores to the Jal Jeevan Mission for the financial year 2021-22.
• In addition, Rs 26,940 crores has been assured under the Fifteenth Finance Commission.
• In 2021-22, the Government of India has planned to invest more than Rs 1 lakh crore to ensure tap water supply to rural homes.

Jal Jeevan Mission

• The Jal Jeevan Mission was announced in 2019. The main objective of the mission is to provide functional household tap connection to every home in India by 2024.
• The mission envisages to supply 55 litres of water per person per day.
• During the COVID-19 lock down, the Government of India exponentially increased the level of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. This was done to boost Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) working hours. The GoI supported the livelihood of migrant workers and workers of unorganised sector through MGNREGA. Also, the wages of MGNREGA were increased. Therefore, a greater number of working hours was needed. This was provided by Jal Jeevan Mission. The working hours of MGNREGA was used to implement Jal Jeevan Mission (pipe laying, plumbing work, digging, establishing rain harvest systems, etc). Apart from Jal Jeevan Mission, the Indian Railways also supported MGNREGA by providing work hours during lock down.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021