Itanagar, June 3 (PTI): The Centre has approved Rs 255 crore for Arunachal Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in 2020-21 to provide tap connections to all the households in the state, official sources said on Wednesday.
The state proposes to provide tap connections to all households by March 2023, they said.
Of the 2.18 lakh rural households, the state is planning to provide 77,000 tap connections in 2020-21, the sources said.
It plans to immediately provide tap connections to all households belonging to the weaker sections of the society on priority, they said.
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Centre has advised the state that water supply work in the villages be taken up urgently to provide tap connections which would help people in maintaining social distancing, besides providing employment to the locals and boosting the rural economy, they said.
Strengthening the existing drinking water sources for long-term sustainability through the convergence of various programmes such as the MGNREGS, Swach Bharat Mission (Gramin) and MLA Local Area Development funds has been planned to ensure judicious use of all available funds, the sources said.
The state''s panchayati raj institutions have been allocated Rs 231 crore under the 15th Finance Commission grants during 2020-21, and 50 percent of this amount will be mandatorily spent on water and sanitation, the sources added.
