Kolkata, Dec 7 (PTI) Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Monday alleged that the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has failed to utilise funds given by the Centre for development of the state, depriving people of their benefits.

He said that water supply connections to village households have increased many-fold in the country under the Narendra Modi government, but the 'Jal Jivan Mission' never really took off in West Bengal though the Centre has provided the state with Rs 1,000 crore for the scheme.

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The prime minister decided to provide water supply to 100 per cent rural household in five years and the 'Jal Jivan Mission' was started in 2019 for this purpose, Shekhawat, also a senior BJP leader, told reporters here.

"Despite the corona situation, we have been able to give 2.60 crore drinking water connections in one year," he said, adding that technical help and financial assistance have been provided to state governments for this purpose.

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There are 19 crore rural households in the country, of which 3.23 crore were provided with water supply by previous governments at the Centre in all these years, he said.

He said that more than one lakh connections are being given every day under the 'Jal Jivan Mission', he said.

Shekhawat said that there are 1.63 crore rural households in West Bengal, of which only 4.98 lakh have got drinking water connections.

"We gave Rs 1,000 crore in the first phase to the West Bengal government with the promise to give further instalments on completion of every phase. But unfortunately, there have been only 4,860 connections in one year," he said.

Shekhawat alleged that despite funds being provided by the central government, the state has not been able to deliver.

The minister said that parts of West Bengal suffer from the problem of arsenic, fluoride and iron in groundwater which seriously affects the health of people.

"We have given more than Rs 1,300 crore since 2017 (to resolve the problem). Even after three years, Rs 726 crore remained unspent," he said. He claimed that more than 80 projects initiated by the Centre for the benefit of the public have not been implemented in West Bengal by the TMC regime and the state stands at the lowest in the development index in various fields.

"The TMC government has not implemented these in the state for narrow political interests, depriving the poor people of the benefits," he said.

Shekhawat said that the Mamata Banerjee government has deprived around 75 lakh farmers of the state of Rs 6,000 per year by not implementing the PM Kisan Yojana, apart from denying people the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat health scheme.

He claimed that the farmers' agitation is concentrated in Punjab and parts of Haryana only and there is no effect of it in other areas of the country.

West Bengal has become the centre of political violence, terror and atrocities against people, the BJP leader alleged.

The TMC government has politicised crime, institutionalised corruption and politicised the administration," Shekhawat said.

He alleged that the West Bengal government is not sharing data with the National Crime Records Bureau since the state tops in crime against women.

(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)