On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with gram panchayats and Pani Samitis and Village Water and Sanitation Committees on Jal Jeevan Mission at 11 am, via video-conference.
He will also launch the Jal Jeevan Mission App, which is aimed at improving awareness among stakeholders and for greater transparency and accountability of schemes under the Mission.
In addition, the video-conference will also see the launch of Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh in which any individual, institution, corporate, or philanthropist, be it in India or abroad, can contribute to help provide tap water connection in every rural household, school, anganwadi centre, ashramshala, and other public institutions.
Pani Samitis play a key role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of village water supply systems, thereby providing clean tap water to every household on a regular and long-term basis.
Out of over six lakh villages, Pani Samitis and VWSCs have been constituted in around 3.5 lakh villages. More than 7.1 lakh women have been trained to test the quality of water by using Field Test Kits.
Jal Jeevan Mission
On 15 August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Jal Jeevan Mission — to provide clean tap water to every household.
In 2019, only 3.23 crore (17 percent) rural households had tap water supply.
Currently, under the scheme, more than five crore households have been provided with tap water connections.
Today, 8.26 crore (43 percent) rural households have tap water supply in their homes. Every rural household in 78 districts, 58 thousand Gram Panchayats and 1.16 lakh villages are getting tap water supply. Till now, tap water supply has been provided in 7.72 lakh (76 percent) schools and 7.48 lakh (67.5 percent) anganwadi centres.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is implemented in partnership with states with a budget of Rs 3.6 lakh crores. Further, Rs. 1.42 lakh crore has been allocated to Panchayati Raj Institutions as a tied grant under 15th Finance Commission for water and sanitation in villages for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Inputs from agencies