Bhubaneswar: Despite a central government inspection team reportedly giving a clean chit to Odisha’s implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the state is facing a severe financial crunch due to the non-disbursement of sanctioned funds from the Centre. This has brought the state’s ambitious drinking water projects to a near halt, jeopardizing the goal of providing clean piped water to every rural household.
The central government had sanctioned ₹7000 crore for Odisha under the JJM for the current financial year. However, as the fiscal year draws to a close, a significant portion of these funds remains undisbursed. This delay has had a cascading effect, preventing the state government from clearing payments to agencies contracted for the drinking water supply projects.
According to sources, a team from the Union Ministry of Water Resources’ Drinking Water and Sanitation Department conducted a field investigation in the state to review the utilization of previous funds. The team reportedly found no major irregularities in Odisha’s project execution, contrasting with issues detected in some other states. Despite this satisfactory report, the release of funds for Odisha has been stalled, leaving many mega drinking water projects in a half-finished state.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is a centrally-sponsored scheme with a 50:50 funding pattern for most states, including Odisha. This means the state government’s contribution is contingent on the timely release of the central share. With a large number of projects in dire need of funding, this delay has become a significant challenge for the State Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Departments.
The slowdown in work affects a large segment of the population. Out of the 8.866 lakh families targeted for tap water connections under the mission, over 6.8 lakh have been covered so far. However, more than 20 lakh families are still awaiting drinking water connections, and the delay in fund release makes it increasingly difficult to meet the stipulated deadlines. If the funds are not released immediately, many projects will be stalled, making it impossible to achieve the mission’s objectives within the set timeframe.