To enable every rural household in the country, including those in villages of Jharkhand, to have potable water at service level of 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd) through Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024, Government of India, in partnership with the States, has launched Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) with an outlay of Rs. 3.60 lakh Crore out of which central share is Rs. 2.08 lakh Crore.
After the launch of JJM, a conference of Minister in-charge of rural water supply of various States was held in New Delhi followed by five regional workshops to discuss the modalities of the implementation of the Mission. Moreover, in consultation with State Governments < other stakeholders in water sector, Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the Mission has been released on 25.12.2019.
In 2019-20, a budgetary allocation of Rs.10,000.66 Crore has been made and as on 11.03.2020, an amount of Rs. 9,542.89 Crore has been released to the States/ UTs.
Water being a State subject, powers to plan, design, approve and implement rural water supply projects including identification of sources are vested with respective States. Under JJM, States have been advised to take up the sustainability measures aimed at augmentation of sources of drinking water in convergence with Central Government schemes like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Integrated Watershed Management Progamme (IWMP), Finance Commission Grants to Panchayati Raj Institutions, etc.
Further, Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign was also launched in 256 water stressed districts across the country with the aim to promote water conservation and water resource management by focusing on accelerated implementation of five target interventions, viz., water conservation < rain water harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies/ tanks, reuse and recharge of bore wells, watershed development and intensive afforestation.
