HYDERABAD: The Jal Shakti Ministry on Saturday rejected the claim of Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Friday that the Centre has given an award to ‘Mission Bhagiratha’ for supplying 100% clean drinking water to all households in rural areas.
Not naming Harish, the Ministry said that an attempt was made to mislead the people by saying that the National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM) had conducted an assessment of Mission Bhagiratha scheme, and that every household in the State was receiving clean drinking water at the rate of 100 litres per capita per day.
The Ministry also rejected the claim that the assessment was done in 320 villages in Telangana, and that all households were getting clean dri-nking water through tap every day.
The Ministry said that “Functionality Assessment 2022” was done as per JJM norms. As per the assessment, data from 12,570 households in 409 villages of Telangana was sampled, which showed that 8% of households were receiving less than 55 litres per capita per day, and that 5% of households were not receiving water as per the quality norms of JJM.
Countering the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti’s claim that the award was not given for Mission Bhagiratha, State Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao stated that the Jal Jeevan Mission director had asked Telangana on September 26 to send its officials to receive the award for its excellence in supplying safe drinking water to rural households.
“The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti admitted it reviewed the Mission Bhagiratha scheme in the letter in which it raised its objections. Surprisingly, it says all these are lies. Is Union Ministry of Jal Shakti a lie or Jal Shakti Mission a lie?” asked Dayakar Rao.