AGARTALA, April 17 (PTI): The Tripura government has decided to cover all 7,60,052 rural households with tap water by December 2022, Drinking Water and Sanitation (DWS) minister Sushanta Chowdhury said on Saturday.
At present, 3,82,475 rural households are covered with tap water under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) which is 50.32 per cent coverage. The state’s tap water coverage is more than the national average of 48.81 per cent.
“The DWS department has been working on mission mode to cover all households in rural areas with clean drinking water by the stipulated time. Currently, Tripura stands in 16th place when it comes to implementation of JJM,” he said.
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Tripura is in fifth position in providing tap water to each household among NE states as envisaged under JJM, a flagship programme of the Central government, Chowdhury said.
In the Northeast, Sikkim tops the JJM graph followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram, the minister said. “The number of rural households in three NE states is less compared to Tripura and Assam. In Tripura, the number of rural households stands at 7,60,052 while Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have only 22,323 and 1,33,132 respectively. The number is big in Tripura that’s why it takes time to cover all rural households,” he said.
Chowdhury further said only 296 habitations out of 8,723 have not been covered yet with clean drinking water but work will begin very shortly.
Not only households or habitations, the department is also working to cover all schools and Anganwadi centres as mandated by the central government, he said.
Noting that there has been no fund constraint to implement JJM in full steam, the minister said the Centre has awarded Rs 100 crore to the state for executing the JJM successfully.
Currently, 205 tankers are being pressed into service to supply water in 463 habitations where tap water has not reached as the dry spell continues in hilly areas of the state.
