Gujarat’s Jal Jeevan Mission data had discrepancies, reporting flaws: CAG

Gandhinagar: The implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in Gujarat was marked by data discrepancies and reporting flaws, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report for the year ended March 2024.

The report said the e-Jalshakti portal and the State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) had declared 100% functional household tap connection (FHTC) coverage across 9.12 million rural households by October 2022. However, an audit of District Annual Action Plans (DAAPs) across 27 districts found that 1.48 million households were still pending FHTC coverage as of April 1, 2024.

“According to the e-Jalshakti portal and SAAP, the state had declared 100% FHTC coverage totaling 91.18 lakh households by October 2022. Contrarily, DAAPs from 27 districts still reflected 14.84 lakh households pending FHTC coverage as of April 1, 2024,” the CAG report said.


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“Due to this contradiction, audit could not vouch for the reliability of the data”, the report said, adding that “the absence of basic records, discrepancies between SAP and DAPs, and mismatched figures between SAAP and DAAPs collectively reveal issues in data reliability”.

The report also flagged anomalies in data on the central e-Jalshakti portal.

“An analysis of the data on the e-Jalshakti portal revealed inconsistencies between planned and reported Functional Household Tap Connections,” the report said.

“Audit observed that out of the 585 multi-village water supply schemes listed on the portal, 294 schemes were targeted to provide 5.38 lakh FHTCs, but no achievement data against the same was available on the portal, though these schemes have been shown to be completed. Conversely, 131 schemes had a collective target of 75,035 FHTCs as per the portal, but against these, 6.16 lakh FHTCs have been shown to be achieved, exceeding their targets by more than seven times,” it said.

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“Such divergent under- and over-reporting within the same portal indicates systemic data integrity issues,” the CAG observed.

The CAG also flagged discrepancies between the real-time dashboard developed by the government and its audit findings.

The dashboard, developed under the Jal Jeevan Mission to facilitate transparency and monitoring, captures parameters including the number of FHTCs provided, FHTCs remaining to be provided and the status of functional and non-functional tap connections.

“The dashboard indicated 100% tap water coverage across all households in the state of Gujarat by October 2022. However, field verification of 48 test-checked villages revealed discrepancies with respect to the frequency, quantity and quality of water supply, which did not align with the dashboard figures,” it said.

The report said the dashboard showed in January 2025 that no water supply scheme was in progress and that 17,801 Village Action Plans (VAPs) had been prepared. However, the audit found that 682 in-village water supply schemes worth Rs 449.13 crore were ongoing, while VAPs had been prepared in only 44.26% of villages in the test-checked districts.

“Therefore, the reliability of the data presented in the real-time dashboard could not be verified in the audit,” it said.