Global polls
As the world is in the midst of the ‘Great Election Year’ of 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sounded the alarm on the perilous tight-rope walk between democratic exercises and fiscal responsibility.
A year before assembly elections, the Centre on Friday approved 735 schemes to the tune of Rs 1882 crore for making provisions for drinking tap water to benefit around 39 lakh people.
All these schemes would cover nearly 4.03 lakh rural households in 1262 villages of 33 Districts in the state benefitting more than 39 lakh people in the state, said a senior officer of the Jal Shakti Ministry.
Presently only 34 lakh rural households out of 2.64 Crore are getting tap water supply in their homes. This fiscal year, the state government is planning to provide tap water connections to around 78 lakh houses with the help of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) programme of the Union Government.
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The National Jal Jeevan Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti had released Rs 1206 Crore to Uttar Pradesh during 2019-20, which was considerably increased to Rs. 2,571 Crore in 2020-21. The newly released fund is in addition to the existing funds.
To accelerate the pace of JJM implementation, the National Jal Jeevan Mission has also urged the State to take necessary measures to provide tap water supply to 78 lakh rural households in the State this year, for which the State plans to start water supply works in more than 60 thousand villages by December, 2021.
Minister of State for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has also assured the state government that there would be no paucity of funds for the implementation of the state’s tap water programme. Besides this, Centre has also allocated Rs 4,324 Crore to Uttar Pradesh as 15th Finance Commission tied grant for water and sanitation to Rural Local Bodies in 2021-22, the Jal Shakti Ministry said.
“There is assured funding of Rs. 22,808 Crore tied grant for the next five years i.e. up to 2025-26,” the Ministry said. This huge investment in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh will accelerate economic activities and also boost the rural economy. It will create income-generating opportunities in villages, the Ministry said.
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