Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India appointed Central Nodal Officers (CNOs) in 2025 for the ground inspection of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) schemes across identified districts. The CNOs inspected 163 schemes in 155 districts across the country. The parameters assessed during the inspections, inter-alia, included functionality of schemes, institutional mechanisms, quality of works, technical design, grievance redressal mechanisms, effectiveness of Third-Party Inspection Agencies (TPIAs), and issues relating to cost overruns and time overruns.

Drinking Water being a state subject, the responsibility of planning, approval, implementation, operation, and maintenance (O&M) of drinking water supply schemes, including those under JJM, lies with State/UT Governments. The Government of India supports the states by providing technical and financial assistance. Numerous projects are implemented concurrently at various levels across the states for achieving the envisaged objectives. As such, project-wise details of individual projects/ schemes for rural water supply projects are not maintained at the Government of India level.

In August 2019, Union Cabinet had approved the implementation of JJM with central outlay of Rs. 2,08,652 crores. Against the allocated fund, almost entire fund has been utilized. To achieve 100 per cent coverage through continued implementation of mission with focus on quality of infrastructure and O&M of rural piped water supply schemes for long term sustainability and citizen centric water service delivery, Hon'ble Finance Minister during her budget speech 2025-26 had announced extension of JJM until 2028 with enhanced total outlay.

Water being a state subject, the responsibility for finalizing the technical and financial criteria for tenders related to the procurement of goods and services lies with the respective State/UT governments. Further, as per operational guidelines for implementation of JJM, Government of India has advised the States that “while finalising the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, relevant clause in the tender documents is to be included mentioning that materials to be procured for use in construction by the contracting agency should adhere to the relevant Indian Standards”.

Further, a number of steps have been taken to plan and implement JJM in the whole country with speed, inter alia, including joint discussions and finalization of saturation plans and annual action plans (AAP) of States/ UTs, regular review of implementation, workshops/ conferences/ webinars for capacity building, training, knowledge sharing, field visits by multi-disciplinary team to provide technical support, etc. A detailed Operational Guideline for the implementation of JJM; Margdarshika for Gram Panchayats & VWSCs to provide safe drinking water in rural households and Guidelines on a special campaign to provide piped water supply in Anganwadi centres, ashramshalas and schools have been shared with States/ UTs to facilitate planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. For online monitoring, JJM–Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) and JJM–Dashboard has been put in place. Provision has also been made for transparent online financial management through Public Financial Management System (PFMS).

The information was provided by THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI SHRI V. SOMANNA in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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AMK

(Lok Sabha USQ 1039)