The Uttar Pradesh government has made an important announcement to help villagers get clean drinking water. They are waiving the 10% contribution that villagers had to pay for the ‘Har Ghar Nal’ scheme under the Jal Jeevan Mission. This means the villagers won’t have to pay anything for the community part of the costs; the state government will cover it instead.
Under this scheme, every household in the village will get a tap water connection. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stated that people should not be burdened with extra costs for something as essential as water.
In Uttar Pradesh, there are a total of 40,951 projects approved, costing about Rs 1.52 lakh crore. The central and state governments have shared expenses of Rs 71,714.68 crore each. By removing the community contribution, the state government will save villagers a total of Rs 9,092.42 crore, helping 2.33 crore families.
The goal of the Jal Jeevan Mission is to ensure that everyone in rural areas has access to clean drinking water. At first, villagers were expected to pay 5% of the costs if they lived in areas with more SC/ST people, and 10% in other areas. But now, the state has decided to remove this charge completely for the welfare of the public.
Some other states, like Haryana, Bihar, Odisha, and West Bengal, have also decided to cover the community contribution. In Rajasthan, the Chief Minister announced that it will be paid by the state government, while Madhya Pradesh is still looking into it.
However, villagers will still need to pay a small fee of Rs 50 to their local Gram Panchayat as a maintenance charge. Anurag Shrivastava, Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Supply Department, stated that the UP government is committed to ensuring that rural residents do not have to face financial troubles to access basic needs like clean water, with a strong budget of Rs 2,000 crore allocated for the next financial year.
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