Bengal leads in provisioning of piped drinking water to households
The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti’s latest report on the implementation of its scheme, Jal Jeevan Mission shows that, among the 32 states, Bengal, with 2,38,472 connections, currently stands at number one in the provisioning of drinking water connection to households.
Big BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, which are often held up by the party as shining examples, are not even in the top five.
At numbers two to five are Karnataka (2,23,416 connections), Tamil Nadu (2,12,474 connections), Assam (2,09,062 connections) and Odisha (2,05,717 connections).
Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are at numbers six and seven, but with far less piped drinking water connections for households—1,22,436 and 89,321, respectively.
According to the report, in the month of August, a total of 18,96,710 drinking water connections were provided in the entire country under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Among these, Bengal alone provided 12.57 per cent of the connections.
Not only that, the report also praised the Bengal government for increasing the number of drinking water connections to households by four times from May to August, taking it from the sixth to the first position.
Sources in the state government said it has aimed at providing drinking water connections to one crore households by March 2022.
