The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2019.
The JJM is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in India. The work is implemented in partnership with States and Union Territories.
At the time of launch of the mission, only 3.23 crore rural households, a meagre 17%, had a tap water connection in the entire country.
Only 21.76 lakh households (17.3%) in Tamil Nadu had a tap water connection. But as of 4 May 2023, 80.9 lakh households (64.52%) have a tap water connection.
Tamil Nadu has emerged as the only state which has achieved the target for 2022 Q1 and Q2 for Jal Jeevan Mission, with 69.57 lakh households provided with tap connections till date, according to official data.
The target set by the Union government for Q1 and Q2 for 2022 was 12.1 lakh tap connections in Tamil Nadu. However, the state has provided 16.25 lakh tap connections, registering 134% higher connections than the set target of 28.48 lakh tap connections for 2022-2023.
By March 2022, Tamil Nadu had provided functional household tapped connection (FHTC) to 52.96 Lakh Households (HHs). In June 2022, the state’s coverage of FHTC was 46%.
Now, 46% of 1,25,52,655 households means 57.74 Lakh households had functional tap water connection by the end of June 2022. After 3 months, Tamil Nadu claims to have provided FHTC to 69.57 Lakh households.
The number of new FHTCs provided to the households, during April to June 2022 is 4.78 lakhs and for July to September 2022 is 11.83 lakhs which is almost 3 times the number achieved in Q1.
It can be seen that there is a sudden spike in new FHTC between June 2022 and September 2022. These figures raise suspicions of the DMK government inflating the figures.
Data for the year 2020-2021 reveals that 14.9 lakh new tap water connections. If that is the case, how did the DMK government manage to provide 11.83 lakh connections in just 3 months?
It is worth remembering that in November 2022, a youngster named Murali Krishnan had released a video in which he exposed the irregularities in the laying of the pipes under JJM in his village.
In the video, the outlet pipe can be seen just fixed to the ground without any pipeline underneath. He had alleged that authorities have given completion certificate and accounted ₹3.69 lakh for this incomplete work done.
வீட்டுக்கு குடிநீர் திராவிட மாடல்? திருவண்ணாமலை மாவட்டம், சேத்துப்பட்டு வட்டம், இந்திரவனம் கிராமம். விஞ்ஞான ஊழல்வாதி வழியில் ரூ4000 கோடி சென்னை மழைநீர் வடிகால் ஊழலை தொடர்ந்து திருவண்ணாமலையில். @EPSTamilNadu @AIADMKOfficial @AIADMKITWINGOFL pic.twitter.com/pXDrCJNRny
— Kovai Sathyan (@KovaiSathyan) November 21, 2022
A report by Puthiya Thalaimurai noted that drinking water pipes were installed at 104 places but it was found that outlet pipes were installed for namesake in more than 50 places.
It was alleged that department officials were bribed to give the completion certificate for the incomplete work done.
Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai had brought this to the Tamil Nadu Governer RN Ravi’s attention.
”With respect to Jal Jeevan Mission in TamilNadu, state BJP unearthed fraud amounting to multiple hundreds of Crores of Rupees in Vizhuppuram. We brought it to attention of Governor about how fake receipts are generated, how without work completion certificate is generated”,he said.
If the irregularities are proved by the investigative agencies, this scam in Jal Jeevan Mission will prove to be DMK’s ‘water’gate.
This article has been developed based on Krishna Kumar Murugan‘s tweet on the same subject.
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