AP lagging behind: Lanka

PNS|Vijayawada

BJP political feedback Pramukh Lanka Dinakar regretted that Andhra Pradesh is lagging behind in implementing Jal Jeevan Mission scheme meant to provide drinking water to every household in rural areas.

In a statement here Sunday, Dinakar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme on August 15, 2019 to provide safe drinking water to every household in rural India The estimated cost of this scheme for the entire country was Rs 3.50 lakh crore, which is being executed by the state governments with a joint 50:50 contribution from the Centre and the States. The progress of the scheme in the country and in AP information was obtained through the Right to Information Act, the Dashboard information on the website of the Ministry of Jala shakti.

In AP, the target of 34.66 % has been reached by providing safe drinking water taps to only 2.43 lakh households in addition to the 32.13 % drinking water tap connections in addition to 30.74 lakh when the scheme was started in 2019.

Since 2019, in Andhra Pradesh, 2.43 lakh additional connections have been provided, which is only 3.74 % in addition till now. But Andhra Pradesh, which was two times higher than the national average in terms of installation of taps at the time of inception of the scheme, has now lagged far behind in the implementation of the scheme compared to the national average, which reflects the negative performance of the State government.

While the work of this scheme is being completed rapidly in other states of the country, the incomplete planning and slow action of the AP have become a curse for the people. The Central Government has already allocated Rs 7,804.20 crore out of its share of Rs 8,956.30 crore in the estimated total cost of Rs 18,004.70 crore required for the implementation of this scheme in the last three years, while the allocation made by the state as its share is “Nil”.

In Spite of ample funds from the Central Government, only Rs. 1,648.13 crore has been spent on the work done so far in AP. The lack of planning by the AP State Government in the implementation of the scheme is evident. Due to the temptation of the leaders of the ruling YSRCP party in the state to get back money through corruption in every work, the reasons such as above have caused slowness in the implementation of this scheme, Lanka Dinakar opined.