New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said over 2.6 crore families have been provided with piped drinking water connection under Jal Jeevan Mission.
During the last one and half years from the start of Jal Jeevan Mission more than 2 crore 60 lakh families have been provided piped drinking water connection to their homes including lakhs of families in Uttar Pradesh as well, the Prime Minister said after laying the foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts of Vindhyachal region of Uttar Pradesh via video conference.
The Prime Minister also interacted with Village Water and Sanitation Committee/ Paani Samiti Members during the event. Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were present on the occasion.
The projects, for which the foundation stones were laid by the Prime Minister today will provide household tap water connections in all rural households of 2,995 villages and will benefit about 42 lakh population of these districts.
Village Water and Sanitation Committees/ Paani Samiti have been constituted in all these villages, who will shoulder the responsibility of operation and maintenance. The total estimated cost of the projects is Rs 5,555.38 crore. The projects are planned to be completed in 24 months.
“Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the life of our mothers and sisters is getting easier due to easy water access at the comfort of their homes,” Mr Modi said.
He said a major benefit of this has also been reduction of many diseases like cholera, typhoid, encephalitis caused by dirty water.
The Prime Minister lamented that despite having a lot of resources, Vindhyachal or Bundelkhand regions became regions of deficiencies.
He added, in spite of having several rivers, these regions were known as the most thirsty and drought-affected regions and forced many people to migrate from here.
Mr Modi said now water scarcity and irrigation issues will be resolved by these projects and it signifies rapid development. (UNI)