Tap water: Tussle for credit between JD(U) and BJP on Bihar’s success

Bihar says Jal Jeevan Mission played minor role in rural tap water success

Only 5% of the funding behind Bihar’s success in providing tap water connections to 87% of its rural households came from the Centre’s flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the State’s Water Resources Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said on Wednesday. Over 93% of funds came from a State scheme. However, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat earlier told The Hindu that Bihar had taken decentralisation under the scheme to an extreme, resulting in quality issues that needed correction. The tussle for credit by the Janata Dal (United)-ruled Bihar government, challenging the narrative of the BJP-ruled Centre, comes during the two-year anniversary of the flagship scheme which aims to bring tap water connections to all rural homes across the country by 2024. Since its launch on the Independence Day 2019, the JJM has claimed that it has provided taps to 4.73 crore households, including 1.46 crore in Bihar. In the run up to assembly elections last year, the State’s performance was hailed as one of the success stories of the scheme, and it has now achieved 87% coverage, in contrast to the national coverage of 41%. It stands at the fourth position among States, following Goa, Telangana and Haryana.