BHUBANESWAR: The State government has got a gigantic task at hand for ensuring tap water to all households by 2024. Hamstrung by the slow pace of work, it has to make provision of potable tap water supply to over 43.91 lakh households in less than 30 months.
While more than 50 per cent households have access to tap water in 14 districts, Nuapada tops list with 92.93 per cent coverage. The tribal-dominated and Maoist-affected Malkangiri district is at the bottom with a meagre 28.21 per cent coverage.
The project implemented under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) with equal contribution from the Centre and State. Funds assured under the programme for 2022-23 is Rs 9,500 crore. With an opening balance of Rs 1,197.29 crore, the Central allocation for the programme was Rs 3,608.62 crore. The expenditure out of the Central assistance so far is Rs 360.11 crore.
Taking the opening balance and State allocation, the assured fund availability under the scheme is Rs 4,693.93 crore. The utilisation out of the State’s share is Rs 355 crore, taking the total expenditure to Rs 715.19 crore.
In 2021-22, the State under the scheme had an assured funds of Rs 6,591 crore out of which Rs 3,334.35 was Central share and Rs 3,256.66 crore was to be borne by the State. The utilisation of fund out of Central share was Rs 1,306 crore and Rs 1,289.72 crore from State’s share. The total expenditure was Rs 2,595.92 crore.
Meanwhile, the State has provided tap water connection to 3,903 scheduled caste majority villages and 19,226 scheduled tribe majority villages in the aspirational districts.
Apart from this, the State has received Central allocation of Rs 4,806 crore including opening balance of Rs 1197.29 crore for making provision of water supply and ensuring quality of water supply to areas contaminated with arsenic and fluoride. The State has so far utilised Rs 254 crore out of Central allocation and Rs 250 crore from its share.