Jal Jeevan Mission: Central team visits Bengal to provide technical assistance

A central team is on a three-day visit to West Bengal to provide technical assistance to the state for the Jal Jeevan Mission, according to a statement on Thursday. The visit of the four-member team comes more than a month after the Centre had criticised the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state, saying it had shown "dismal performance". The scheme aims to provide tap connections to all rural households by 2024.

The Jal Shakti Ministry said the team was visiting the state from Wednesday-Friday to provide "technical assistance" to realise the goal of 'Har Ghar Jal' (water in every house) under the Jal Jeevan Mission programme, identify different issues and challenges, and document good practices.

The team is visiting different parts of the state and interacting with field-level officials involved with implementation of water supply schemes, as well as village heads and members of the panchayats.


They are holding meetings with the chairperson of the district water and sanitation mission/ district collector and seek their intervention for speedy implementation of the programme.

West Bengal has planned to provide 100-per-cent tap connections to all the households in the state by 2023-24. During 2020-21, fund allocation to West Bengal has increased to Rs 1,610.76 crore.