India News | Pace of 'jal Jeevan' Mission in Andhra Slow: Union Minister
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Friday came down heavily on the Andhra Pradesh government over the slow pace of the implementation of 'jal jeevan' mission (JJM). JJM is a Centre-sponsored scheme that is intended to provide functional household water-tap connection in every house in the rural areas of the State.
Amaravati, Mar 4 (PTI) Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Friday came down heavily on the Andhra Pradesh government over the slow pace of the implementation of 'jal jeevan' mission (JJM). JJM is a Centre-sponsored scheme that is intended to provide functional household water-tap connection in every house in the rural areas of the State.
Since the launch of the scheme in 2019-20, only 19.84 lakh households (20.85 per cent) were covered under the JJM till date.
The Jal Shakthi Minister is on a two-day tour of the State during which he addressed BJP activists at its State headquarters here. He said Rs 7,000 crore was sanctioned for the State, of which the share of the Centre was Rs 3,800 crore. “Out of its share, the State government spent only Rs 190 crore in the last three years. This year, the government did not draw any Central fund under the JJM,” the Union Minister said. The State would be questioned over this in the meeting of the southern States that is to be held in Bengaluru soon, he said. “As the Opposition party, you should grill the State government over this,” Shekhawat told the BJP leadership. The Union Minister said the Centre granted Rs 70,000 crore to Andhra in recent years under the MGNREGP and Rs 64,000 crore for railway projects. State president of the BJP Somu Veerraju brought to the Jal Shakti Minister's notice that the Veligonda irrigation project has been omitted in the official gazette published by the Krishna River Management Board.
Responding to this, Shekhawat said steps would be taken to set right the mistake.
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Rajya Sabha members G V L Narasimha Rao and C M Ramesh, and State general secretary of the BJP S Vishnuvardhan Reddy were with Shekhawat at the headquarters of the party.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)