AP may lose Rs 3,750 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission: GVL Narasimha Rao

Ongole: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao expressed concern that the State will lose Rs 3,750 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission, if not responded early.

Responding to the question by GVL Narasimha Rao, Minister of Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel informed that the State and the Centre governments match the expenditure under Jal Jeevan Mission 50:50 to provide tap water supply to rural households for all villages in all districts. He said that the funds should be matched by both the governments in an escrow account and should be spent from it.

In the reply, the Union minister announced that the Central government has allocated Rs 372.64 crore for 2019-20, and for the total funds drawn by the State only Rs 121.62 crore but matched only Rs 54.80 crore to it. For 2020-21, the Union government allocated Rs 790.48 crore and the State government has withdrawn 297.62 crore into the Jal Jeevan Mission account and spent Rs 427.73 crore by matching Rs 180.97 crore only. The minister also informed that for 2021-22, the Centre allocated Rs 3,182.88 crore but the government did not draw any but spent Rs 46.84 crore from the already available funds by matching Rs 39.28 crore.

In a statement, GVL Narasimha Rao said that if the State government fails to match the grants and withdraw the allocated funds of around Rs 3,750 crore for use under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the funds will lapse by March 2022. He said that though the Central government is cooperating with the State by sanctioning thousands of rupees under various programmes, the State government is not able to utilise them. He said that he will question the negligence of the State government and by damaging the development of the Andhra Pradesh state, at the state-level Disha committee meeting.