It warned that with out dependable knowledge, assessing floor realities and plugging gaps in rural water provide would stay tough.
“Being conscious of the truth that precise veracity of uploaded info is important for realising the precise floor state of affairs and filling the seen gaps, the Committee reiterate its advice that the Division makes honest efforts to make sure the authenticity of the information being consumed the IMIS,” the Standing Committee on Water Sources stated.
In its sixth report on the Ministry of Jal Shakti's 2024-25 Calls for for Grants, tabled in Parliament on Monday, the Committee stated precise verification of state-uploaded figures was “important for realising the precise floor state of affairs” and reiterated that the Division of Ingesting Water and Sanitation ought to make “honest efforts to make sure the authenticity of the information”.
The panel's scrutiny comes amid broader issues over the gradual tempo of Har Ghar Jal protection.
Solely 11 states and Union Territories (UTs) have achieved full family faucet water connections since JJM's launch in 2019, and 6 main states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala and Rajasthan are performing beneath the nationwide common. The federal government has prolonged the deadline for offering 100 per cent faucet water protection by 2028. The preliminary deadline was 2024. Water high quality points persist in additional than 12,000 rural habitations, with contaminants together with iron, nitrate, salinity and heavy metals. Whereas group purification vegetation have addressed arsenic and fluoride contamination, the committee famous there's nonetheless no time-bound plan to supply a piped provide from secure sources in areas with different pollution. It known as piped water “the one resolution” and urged a nationwide consciousness drive on contamination hazards involving native authorities, civil society teams and NGOs.
The report additionally criticised the standard of public infrastructure restoration after pipeline works, calling it “substandard in lots of States/UTs” and urging higher coordination amongst state departments, contractors and native elected representatives.
Operations and upkeep (O&M) planning additionally stays patchy, with solely 20 states having notified complete O&M insurance policies by mid-2025.
The committee recommended linking central grants to coverage adoption to make sure the sustainability of rural water methods.
On sanitation, it urged the federal government to evaluation the Rs 12,000 incentive for constructing family bogs beneath the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), noting it has not been revised since 2014 regardless of rising development prices.
The panel additionally pointed to budgetary constraints, noting that the JJM's 2024-25 allocation of Rs 70,162 crore was far wanting Rs 1 lakh crore sought by the division.
