Mumbai: The State government may well be claiming success of its Jalyukta Shivar scheme in rural areas, but data from the Water Supply and Sanitation Department shows that the number of tankers being used in the State has increased to 611 in April 2018 from 373 in April 2017.
According to the data, 601 villages and 158 hamlets are being provided water through tankers this April, as compared to 357 villages and 846 hamlets in 2017.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde and Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick reviewed the work of the Jalyukat Shivar, a pet project of Mr Fadnavis, through video conference. They interacted will all the divisional commissioners, district collectors and CEOs of Zilla Parishads through the video conference.
Being water independent
Mr. Fadnavis said 16,521 villages were selected in the past three years, of which 11,247 have become water-independent while the remaining will see works completed by June 2018. The government has selected 6,200 more villages for next year under this scheme. Of these villages, 300 are from the Konkan division, 900 from Pune, 1,100 from Nasik, 1,400 from Aurangabad, 1,300 from Amaravati and 1,200 from Nagpur. The government had selected 6202 villages in 2015-16, of which 6,201 villages became water-independent.
In 2016-17, out of the 5,290 villages selected, works in 5,035 villages were completed. However in 2017-18, out of the 5,020 villages selected, only 106 have seen completion of work. The total money spent in three years is at ₹6,456.35 crore.
An official associated with the Jalayukta Shivar scheme said, “The work has not slowed down but is in the final stage. As per the directions of the Chief Minister, all the work will be completed before June 2018.”
