48% houses have received water connection via Jal Jeevan Mission, says BJP

New Delhi, April 9: Celebrating the third day of its outreach programme, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday observed the central government's "Jal Jeevan Mission", a scheme aimed to provide safe drinking tap water to every household in the country by 2024.

At the party's headquarters in New Delhi, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi has said that the Narendra Modi led government had doubled the number of tap water connections in the first two years of the launch of the programme. The BJP, in lieu of its 42nd Foundation Day, is celebrating 'Samajik Nyay Pakhwada' or fortnight dedicated to a social justice campaign that would highlight the central government's welfare schemes and policies.

"India constitutes world's 16 percent of the world's population and yet we have only 4 percent sources of drinking water. We use 40 percent of underground water… So, this is proof that in the coming times if we do not foresee a way to maintain adequate consumable water levels this may turn into a huge problem… So, keeping this in mind, the Prime Minister's visionary plan has given an emphasis on the Jal Jeevan Mission," Sudhanshu said.

Sudhanshu Trivedi, a Rajya Sabha member, said that approximately 48 percent houses have received the tap water connection as of now as against 16.75 percent in 2014. As per the data provided by the BJP leader, the government has provided 1 crore 40 lac tap water connections across the country.

Trivedi added that initially the central government allotted Rs 40,000 crore for the scheme in 2021-22 which was later revised to 60,000 crores in the 2022-23 budget. According to the party, tapped water supply has been given across households in around 1.5 lakh villages in 107 districts, with 17.29 lakh schools and Anganwadi centres.