Latest news with #JJM
New Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Massive eviction drive launched in Assam's Golaghat; 15,000 people, mostly Muslims, affected
Contrary to government claims that the area was encroached, the demolished properties include houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), government schools under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and electricity connections to almost every household, besides markets, mosques, madrassas and churches, according to locals. The affected families questioned the rationale of the eviction drive and claimed that they were brought to the place by the earlier governments to protect the area from the alleged invasion of Nagaland. "Where will we go from here? My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here. We were brought here during the 1980s to protect the forest land from encroachment from Nagaland," said Ali Kazi, who also received an eviction notice. He claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest area by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985. Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states. It was also stated that Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam -- 59,490.21 hectares. Kazi claimed, "We have been cooperating with the authorities in this eviction drive. We requested them to settle us somewhere else, but they refused. We now have no option but to stay under tents. We are not even given drinking water; forget about food. It's very inhuman." Another eviction victim, Mamtaj Ali, asked, "If we were illegal settlers, how did we get electricity connections? Why did the government open schools and give us JJM connections? We were also given houses under PM Awas Yojana." When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the forest department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of these installations were made even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam. "I do not know why these were sanctioned and established in this area. These were made before I came here," he added. There were mosques and madrassa for people belonging to the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people, the official said. Meanwhile, the Niki Sumi faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland viewed the eviction drive as a 'well-planned' move by the Assam government to grab the ancestral lands of the Nagas. The rebel group alleged that successive Assam governments encouraged the policy of settling 'illegal Bangladeshi immigrants' in the inter-state border areas with the alleged intention to grab the lands of the Nagas. The massive eviction drive followed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's recent visit to Uriamghat. 'People of Assam are victims of the mass scale encroachment, demographic alteration and violence which is caused by illegal settlers. They are firmly behind our Govt in our crackdown against encroachment and realise the need to reclaim what's truly ours,' Sarma posted on X on July 29 Earlier this month, the Assam government had carried out major eviction drives in Lakhimpur, Goalpara and Dhubri districts which displaced thousands of Muslims. (With inputs from PTI)
New Indian Express
13 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Massive eviction drive underway in Assam's Golaghat; over 1500 Muslim families to be affected
"Where will we go from here? My father had come from Nagaon district around 40 years ago, but I was born here. We were brought here during the 1980s to protect the forest land from encroachment from Nagaland," said Ali Kazi, who also received an eviction notice. He claimed that most of the alleged encroachers' previous generation was settled in the forest area by the Janata Party government, headed by ex-CM Golap Borbora, in 1978-79 and the first AGP government, which came to power in 1985. Notably, the assembly was informed in March that almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam were being occupied by four neighbouring states. It was also stated that Nagaland captured the highest amount of land in Assam -- 59,490.21 hectares. Kazi claimed, "We have been cooperating with the authorities in this eviction drive. We requested them to settle us somewhere else, but they refused. We now have no option but to stay under tents. We are not even given drinking water; forget about food. It's very inhuman." Another eviction victim, Mamtaj Ali, asked, "If we were illegal settlers, how did we get electricity connections? Why did the government open schools and give us JJM connections? We were also given houses under PM Awas Yojana." When asked about these government infrastructure, a senior official of the forest department accepted that such facilities were provided by the authorities, and some of these installations were made even after 2016 when the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam. "I do not know why these were sanctioned and established in this area. These were made before I came here," he added. There were mosques and madrassa for people belonging to the Muslim community, while churches were set up by the Bodo people, the official said. For carrying out the eviction drive across 12 villages, the authorities divided the entire area into nine zones and conducted a survey accordingly, he added. "An extensive land survey of around 30 villages of the Rengma Reserve Forest was done.
NDTV
4 days ago
- General
- NDTV
Over 80% of Rural Indian Families Now Have Access to Piped Drinking Water
New Delhi: Marking a significant achievement in rural water infrastructure, the Centre's flagship initiative, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) - Har Ghar Jal, has reached a key milestone. As per data provided by States and Union Territories up to July 22, 2025, over 80.94% of rural households in India now have access to piped drinking water. According to V Somanna, Minister of State for Jal Shakti in Parliament, when the mission was launched in August 2019, only 3.23 crore - or 16.7% - households had tap water connections. Since then, an additional 12.44 crore households have been connected, bringing the total to 15.67 crore rural households out of 19.36 crore nationwide. Originally planned for the 2019-2024 period, the Jal Jeevan Mission - which is implemented in partnership with states and UTs - has been extended until 2028, following an announcement in the 2025-26 Union Budget. The mission has also received increased funding, and a new goal has been established to achieve 100% household tap water coverage within three years. Some States Get Full Marks So far, 11 States and UTs have achieved 100% tap water coverage for rural households: Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh Other states that have shown commendable progress include Uttarakhand, with 97.6% coverage, Ladakh, with 96.88% and Bihar with 95.7%. Seven states now have over 90% of their rural households connected to tap water. Certain states are still experiencing delayed progress. As of July 21, 2025, only 54.66% of rural households in Kerala had access to tap water connections. States like Rajasthan, West Bengal and Jharkhand are also progressing slowly in terms of rural tap water coverage under the initiative. But states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh made significant progress under the scheme. At the inception of the Mission, only 13.53 lakh rural households in Madhya Pradesh had tap water connections. By July 21, 2025, 78.56 lakh households had water connections. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh had 5.16 lakh rural households in 2019 which had risen to 2.4 crore by July 23 this year. According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, Rs 3,881.88 crore from central government allocations is available under JJM. The highest allocations - Rs 970 crore and Rs 688 crore - are for Maharashtra and Karnataka. These funds will continue to support infrastructure development, pipeline expansion, and water quality monitoring in rural areas of India.
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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Jal Jeevan Mission hit by water scarcity, terrain, and fund delays: Govt
Water scarcity, difficult terrain, and delays in state funding are among the key hurdles slowing down the government's flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) that aims to provide tap water to every rural household, Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday. The deadline of Jal Jeevan Mission was extended from 2024 to 2028 in the last budget. In a written response, Minister of State for Jal Shakti V. Somanna said several states have reported constraints such as lack of dependable water sources in drought-prone and desert regions, groundwater contamination, scattered rural habitations, and delays in obtaining statutory clearances. Rising construction costs and limited technical capacity at the local level have further impacted the pace of implementation, he said. Some states have also failed to release their matching share of funds on time, leading to bottlenecks in ongoing projects. To overcome these issues, Somanna said the Centre has launched initiatives like the Nal Jal Mitra programme to train skilled local workers, and set up state and district programme management units to strengthen execution capacity. The government said it is also promoting source sustainability through rainwater harvesting, borewell recharge structures, greywater reuse, and rejuvenation of water bodies, in convergence with schemes such as MGNREGS, watershed programmes, and Finance Commission grants. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Jal Jeevan Mission guidelines changes in 2022 were due to requests from states, minister V Somanna tells Lok Sabha
Minister of State for Jal Shakti V Somanna said Thursday that Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) operational guidelines were changed after considering requests from various states seeking Central support for meeting additional costs of raw materials increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Somanna said, 'Considering the requests from various states seeking central support for meeting additional cost of raw materials increased due to Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis, requisite amendments were made in operational guidelines of the mission with effect from 21.06.2022 for sustaining the pace of implementation during mission period.' Somanna's reply came in response to a question asked by Samajwadi Party (SP) member Anand Bhadauriya, who wanted to know 'whether the change in the tender rules under the JJM, which were removed a few years ago, has led to huge additional cost amounting to crores of rupees across the states'. The government's reply to questions regarding the change in operational guidelines, which resulted in an increase in cost, is significant in view of concerns in some government sections that the cost of JJM works was inflated in certain states. On May 21, The Indian Express reported that an investigation into the data uploaded by states and Union Territories on the JMM dashboard showed that the crucial changes in the JJM guidelines three years ago had lifted the check on expenditure, leading to cost escalations. This resulted in additional costs totalling Rs 16,839 crore for 14,586 schemes, an increase of 14.58 per cent from their estimated cost. At the time of the revision of the guidelines in June 2022, Gajendra Sigh Shekhawat was heading the Jal Shakti Ministry. The payment of tender premium was prohibited in the original JJM guidelines issued in 2019. However, two-and-a-half years later, the Jal Shakti Ministry, with the approval of 'competent authority', made a crucial change in these guidelines on June 21, 2022. The ministry defined the 'approved cost' and deleted two words 'tender premium' from the suggestive list of inadmissible expenses. This paved the way for payment of tender premiums. Earlier this month, Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil stated that the Centre has halted the payment of tender premiums under the rural tap water scheme. Tender premiums refer to the additional amount a bidder quotes, which is higher than the government's approved cost. Responding to a question at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express, Patil said, 'Tender premium ka bhugtan humne rok diya hai. Jo thha, jo gaya hoga woh alag baat hai, magar jo naya hai usse poori tarah hamne rok diya hai (We have stopped the payment of tender premium. What was there, what has gone is a different matter, but what is new has been completely stopped).' In a written response to a question posed by Congress member Praniti Shinde, Somanna stated that a proposal to continue the JJM until 2028 with an enhanced total outlay is under consideration by the government. Shined had asked 'whether the Government has sought an additional 2.79 lakh crore for the completion of the mission' and whether the 'Expenditure Secretary-led panel has approved only a part of the requested amount and proposed a 46% cut in central funding support upto December 2028'. In reply to Shinde's question, Somanna said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her Budget speech 2025-26, announced extension of Jal Jeevan Mission until 2028 with 'enhanced total outlay'. 'Accordingly, a proposal for continuation of Jal Jeevan Mission until 2028 with enhanced total outlay is under consideration of the Government,' Somanna said. Since the launch of the JJM in 2019, 6.4 lakh water supply schemes with a total estimated cost of Rs 8.29 lakh crore – more than double the scheme's original outlay of Rs 3.60 lakh crore (Centre: Rs 2.08 lakh crore, states: 1.52 lakh crore) – have been approved by the states. To meet the additional funding requirement, the ministry approached the Expenditure Finance Committee, headed by the Expenditure Secretary, to approve an additional Rs 2.79 lakh crore in Central funding over and above the existing Rs 2.08 lakh crore. But the EFC recommended only Rs 1.51 lakh crore as the Central share, 46 per cent lower than what was sought by the ministry, as reported by The Indian Express on April 21. Like the Lok Sabha, members of the Rajya Sabha have also raised questions about the increase in the JJM cost due to the change in guidelines in 2022. On July 21, SP members Javed Ali Khan and Ramji Lal Suman asked the Jal Shakti minister about a change in the JJM guidelines and an increase in the cost.
