Previous govt failed to tap Jal Jeevan Mission says Pawan Kalyan

Vijayawada : Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has alleged that the previous government had failed to utilise the central scheme Jal Jeevan Mission which is meant to supply protected drinking water. They spent Rs 4,000 crore on borewells and tried to give water through pipelines but failed.

“If the previous regime had utilised the funds given by the Centre and implemented the Jal Jeevan Mission and if they had utilised the existing water resources in a planned manner, by now many parts of the state would have got tap water connections,” he said. Pawan Kalyan said the previous government sent proposals worth Rs 26,000 crore for rural water supply whereas other states like Uttar Pradesh demanded Rs 1.5 lakh crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 83,000 crore, Gujarat Rs 32,000 crore and a small state like Kerala demanded Rs 45,000 crore from the central scheme.

Delivering the keynote address at the workshop on Amrit Dhara under Jal Jivan Mission attended by the Panchayat Raj officials of all the districts and rural protected water supply department here on Wednesday, Pawan Kalyan directed the officials to prepare a detailed project report and action plan for water management so that it could be submitted to the Centre.

He said the state government had sought Rs 70,000 crore for the project. The Centre, he said, responded favourably but has asked the state government to submit the DPR.

Pawan Kalyan said that connections should be given to 95.44 lakh taps from 38 major reservoirs across the state. The target is to supply 55 litres of water to every villager per day. He further said that the government had urged the Centre to extend the date of the Jal Jeevan Mission and hoped that it would accept the request.