The Yogi Adityanath government has announced a significant relief measure for the villagers of Uttar Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), waiving 10 per cent community contribution for ‘Har Ghar Nal’ scheme. In a significant move, the state government has decided to the community contribution for the Har Ghar Nal scheme, sparing the rural population from any financial burden.

Earlier, the scheme required villagers to contribute 10 per cent of the capital cost for providing tap water connections to every household. However, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has emphasized that this expense should not burden the common people, reaffirming the government’s commitment to public welfare, officials here on Tuesday said.

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Notably, a total of 40,951 schemes worth Rs 1,52,521.82 crore (1.52 lakh crore) have been approved under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state, with the Centre and state sharing Rs 71,714.68 crore each. The government has relieved villagers of the Rs 9,092.42 crore community contribution by allocating Rs 2,000 crore in the current financial year’s budget, benefiting 2.33 crore families.

The Mission aims to provide clean drinking water to the rural population of Uttar Pradesh. Initially, community contribution involved collecting 5 per cent of the capital cost in villages with a higher SC/ST population and 10 per cent in other villages. However, the government, considering access to clean drinking water a basic public welfare responsibility, has decided to exempt the rural population from this contribution.

Currently, the community contribution is being covered by the state governments of Haryana, Bihar, Odisha, and West Bengal. In Rajasthan, the Chief Minister has announced that the state government will bear the cost, while in Madhya Pradesh, the matter is still under consideration. While the state government has waived the community contribution, villagers will be required to pay a nominal Rs 50 to their Gram Panchayat as a maintenance charge under the Har Ghar Nal scheme.

Anurag Shrivastava, Additional Chief Secretary, Namami Gange and Water Supply Department ,said here on Tuesday that acting on CM Yogi’s instructions, the state government has ensured that rural residents face no financial burden for basic amenities like clean drinking water. ” A Rs 2,000 crore budget provision for 2024-25 reinforces its commitment to providing safe drinking water to every household,”he said.

Bundelkhand’s progress in tap water access include: Mahoba: 99.71% (1,39,621 families), Jhansi: 99.15% (2,49,100 families),Lalitpur: 99.46% (2,05,865 families)Chitrakoot: 99.83% (1,63,698 families)Banda: 99.34% (2,67,198 families)Jalaun: 95.87% (2,03,309 families) and Hamirpur: 99.32% (1,85,261 families). For Vindhya Region progress in tap water access is Mirzapur: 98.34% (3,49,292 families),Sonbhadra: 80.83% (2,53,938 families).