PM Modi to lay foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi: Yogi government has set out a detailed roadmap for providing tap water to all districts including remote areas is moving at swift pace. Giving a push to the initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts of Vindhyachal region of the state.

Besides laying foundation stone, PM Modi will also interact with water committee members via video conferencing.

“The Prime Minister will also interact with Village Water and Sanitation Committee/ Paani Samiti Members during the event. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath will also be present on the occasion,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

According to the statement, the projects will provide household tap water connections in all rural households of 2,995 villages and will benefit about 42 lakh population of these districts.

Village Water and Sanitation Committees/ Paani Samiti have been constituted in all these villages, who will shoulder the responsibility of operation and maintenance.

The total estimated cost of the projects is Rs 5,555.38 Crore. The projects are planned to be completed in 24 months.

Announced on August, 15, 2019 by the Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort, Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide functional household tap connections to every rural home of the country by 2024.

At the time of announcement of the mission in August, 2019, out of 18.93 Crore rural households, only 3.23 Crore households (17 per cent) had tap water connections, i.e. 15.70 crore to be provided with tap connections in next four years.

In the last 15 months, despite Covid-19 pandemic, 2.63 crore households have been given tap water connections and at present about 5.86 crore (30.67 per cent) rural households are having tap water connections, the press statement added.