Over 80.5L homes get tap water under JJM in MP, covering 72% of households

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh has emerged as one of the country’s leading performers under the Jal Jeevan Mission, with 80,52,082 households now provided tap water connections, translating into over 72 per cent coverage across the state, officials said during a high-level review meeting held here on Tuesday.

Chief Secretary Anurag Jain, while reviewing the progress of the mission, directed officials of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department to expedite all remaining works and ensure that clean drinking water reaches every household in every village within the stipulated timeline. Emphasising strict monitoring, he warned that no negligence or compromise in quality would be tolerated.

Principal Secretary, PHED, P. Narhari, informed that the state government is moving ahead with the mission under the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver tap water and improved quality of life to every household, and the firm resolve of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to fulfil this commitment in Madhya Pradesh. He said extensive measures have been taken to maintain transparency and quality standards.

Due to persistent delays and irregularities, 280 agencies have been blacklisted, while 22 contractors have been debarred and their contracts terminated. Disciplinary action has also been initiated against 10 officials for supplying substandard materials and violating tender norms. In one case involving a fake bank guarantee, the contractor was terminated and a case registered with the CBI. The department has so far imposed penalties amounting to nearly Rs 30 crore on erring agencies.

To strengthen oversight, district-level Revision Scheme Testing Committees, chaired by Chief Engineers, were constituted to evaluate revised schemes. These committees examined 8,358 single-village tap water schemes. Following their findings, 141 officials, ranging from sub-engineers to executive engineers, and 187 DPR-preparing agencies have been issued show-cause notices.

Madhya Pradesh has been implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission since 2020 through both groundwater-based single-village schemes and surface-water-based multi-village schemes. Despite delays in central funding over the past year, the state government continued the implementation using its own budgetary resources, helping it retain its front-runner status at the national level.