TIRUVANNAMALAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated the Velleri village panchayat in Arni panchayat union of Tiruvannamalai district for installing 412 household tap connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Before JJM’s implementation in 2019, the panchayat had two tap connections in every street and long snaking queues of residents behind them.
The JJM, under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, was created with the intention of providing tap-water connections to every rural household by 2024. The mission is implemented in partnership with the State governments. During the interaction, Modi asked S Sudha, the president of the panchayat, about the efforts that went into the installation.
In her reply, the president told Modi that the village had desilted waterbodies, created rainwater harvesting, and built farm ponds and check dams. Now each household has an individual connection, mentioned Sudha. The Prime Minister also spoke about ‘Arni Silk’ and asked the panchayat president how the village has been spending time weaving silk now that everybody has water connection.
“We (the village) are proud of the Arni Silk and export our products to foreign countries. Earlier, we suffered losses but now we have taps at our homes which saves time and effort. We are using this time to do useful things like making silk,” Sudha explained. Modi also urged the residents to continue with their work. He also mentioned that five crore households had received water connections under the JJM. Modi also interacted with four other village panchayats apart from Velleri.
‘No more loss for Arni’
Velleri Panchayat president S Sudha said that water has helped the village with Arni Silk and the products they export to foreign countries. “Earlier, we suffered losses, now we have taps at our homes which saves time and effort. We are using this time to do useful things like making silk,” Sudha added