Pipeline and tap but no water: how West Bengal is last on India’s Jal Jeevan list

Taps tally adust astatine Gopikantapur successful Purba Bardhaman’s Chakdighi panchayat. (Express photograph by Partha Paul)

Started by the cardinal government’s Ministry of Jal Shakti successful 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission aims astatine providing harmless drinking h2o to the country’s 19.36 crore households successful India.

In West Bengal, the ngo was launched connected August 15, 2019, with an archetypal deadline of 2024. But 5 years on, the authorities appears to beryllium doing poorly: having covered lone 54.24 per cent of its 1,75,52,371 agrarian households, it’s presently past but 1 connected JJM dashboard, down Madhya Pradesh (67.21 per cent), Rajasthan (55.24 per cent), and Jharkhand (54.65 per cent), each of which are doing marginally better. Only Kerala (54.19 per cent) is down West Bengal.

Funding for the strategy is shared by the Centre and states connected a 50:50 basis, with the implementation of the task resting connected the latter.

Of West Bengal’s 25 districts, Nadia (87.27 per cent) Paschim Bardhaman (70.77 per cent), Purba Bardhaman (70.68 per cent), North 24 Parganas (65.98 per cent), and Hooghly (65.85 per cent) person the astir pat connections portion Murshidabad (40.76 per cent), Uttar Dinajpur (39.17 per cent), Paschim Medinipur (38.30 per cent), Malda (36.08 per cent) and Purulia (32.45 per cent) person the least.

Significantly, nary territory successful the authorities has been granted the “Har Ghar Jal” presumption to denote that each its households person got pat h2o supply. Moreover, lone 1 of West Bengal’s 345 improvement blocks, 36 of 3,327 panchayats and 2,355 of 38,256 villages person got the status.

In comparison, states specified arsenic Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab and Union Territories specified arsenic Andaman & Nicobar, Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu person been granted the certified status, meaning that they person villages whose Gram Sabhas has passed a solution certifying 100 percent pat h2o supply.

Tinkari Patra turns connected a adust pat successful Dangordihi colony of Hooghly, West Bengal. (Express photograph by Partha Paul)

In 2020, the state’s Mamata Banerjee authorities renamed the task ‘Jal Swapno’, nether which the authorities promised h2o pipelines to its 2 crore agrarian households. From 2019-20, the cardinal and authorities governments person each allocated implicit Rs 25,000 crore for the mission.

But adjacent among the agrarian households that did unafraid pat connections, a crushed sojourn to districts specified arsenic Purba Bardhaman, Hooghly and Howrah – which are among those with the astir sum nether the strategy – shows that taps are often moving dry. All 3 are successful the state’s apical 10 districts with the astir coverage.

With implementation inactive lagging successful the state, the deadline for the ngo has present been pushed backmost to August 15, 2027.

Here’s what The Indian Express found:

Hooghly

According to the JJM dashboard, 6,42,395 of Hooghly’s 9,75,103 households person pat h2o supply. But successful the colony of Dangordihi, residents talk astir however there’s nary h2o successful the taps.

“Residents paid (panchayat labourers) betwixt Rs 50 and 100 to get taps installed 3 years ago,” says Tinkari Patra, 64, turning connected a pat extracurricular his humble ceramic location to amusement there’s nary water. “We paid due to the fact that we thought we’d person nary drinking water. But there’s inactive nary water, and you tin spot however the pipes are rusted.”

This means relying connected neighbours’ with tubewells, which does not ever spell well. “We spell to their houses to get h2o and they behave severely with us. But what to do? We person to get water,” Bijali Dhara, 48, says.

But Paramita Malik, lawman pradhan (head) of the Beraberi Gram Panchayat and a section TMC leader, believes the occupation is that of “low h2o pressure”. “We person held a gathering and decided to enactment up a tiny pumping presumption to boost h2o pressure. The gathering was held conscionable a fewer days back,” helium says.

Calls and substance messages to Hooghly District Magistrate Mukta Arya went unanswered.

Work successful advancement to laic h2o connections astatine Jalabiswanathpur Village successful Howrah’s Panchla Block (Express photograph by Partha Paul)

Purba Bardhaman and Howrah

Purba Bardhaman comes 3rd connected the state’s JJM database with 7,92,710 pat connections. But the lone clip that the residents of Paikpara colony nether the district’s Jyotisriram Gram Panchayat saw immoderate h2o successful the taps was erstwhile they were installed a twelvemonth ago.

“At that time, panchayat officials took pictures of the pat and our Aadhaar cards,” 40-year-old Sabita Adak, pointing to a breached pat successful a adjacent rubbish pile. “Every year, our colony flooded, but drinking h2o inactive eludes us. It’s similar a atrocious gag being played connected us.”

With the nearest pump location astir fractional a kilometre distant besides remaining nether fastener and key, this colony excessively has to trust connected the colony tubewells.

In Banharishpur gram panchayat Howrah’s Panchla block, Saddam Shah, 32, gave up his backstage h2o transportation 2 years agone aft helium heard of the plans nether the JJM. Howrah is ninth connected West Bengal’s JJM dashboard.

“Now, we neither person our aged nor the caller connection,” helium says.

But the existent occupation begins erstwhile conduit wells excessively commencement to dry, says Goursundar Mondol, 45, a TMC person and pradhan of Chakdighi Gram Panchayat successful Purba Bardhaman.

A h2o vessel astatine Gopikantapur successful Purba Bardhaman’s Chakdighi panchayat.

“When I was the panchayat pradhan, we had predominant meetings with PHE officials astatine the territory level but thing happened. We besides identified onshore for a pumping presumption but past thing happened determination either,” Goursundar says.

Purba Bardhaman District Magistrate Ayesha Rani confirms that the medication had received specified complaints. “We spoke to the section administration, the Sub Divisional Officer and the Block Development Officer. We’ll effort to benignant this retired soon,” she says.

Howrah District Magistrate Deepap Priya says that the medication is gathering h2o reservoirs successful Sankrail and Shyampur blocks to guarantee capable h2o supply. “We expect that by March this year, we’ll beryllium capable to nonstop h2o to each households of Uluberia and Panchla blocks,” the authoritative says.

Govt effect and Opposition criticism

The gait of enactment nether the JJM has rattled the authorities government. At a reappraisal gathering successful November and December, Chief Minister Banerjee blamed it connected the “non-cooperation” of the cardinal authorities and said “stern action” volition beryllium taken against defaulting contractors.

Senior officials astatine the Jal Jeevan Mission, New Delhi, declined to remark saying the authorities was liable for the implementation. On his part, the state’s Public Health Engineering Department curate Pulak Roy says it “isn’t casual work” and that the section would enactment connected “specific information” successful cases wherever determination were connections but nary water. PHE is the nodal bureau successful the authorities for JJM.

Roy besides contests the allegation that the authorities was the lowest performer successful the mission, saying it was “time-taking work”. “We started this task successful July 2020 alternatively of August 2019. We are a densely populated state, 4th successful the state successful presumption of population,” helium says. Meanwhile, PHE sources accidental that a probe is connected against contractors and engineers “not fulfilling their duties”.

But the Opposition blames the Banerjee authorities for the scheme’s performance.

“Drinking h2o has not reached households, but chopped wealth has filled pockets of definite sections, including the ruling party,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sujan Chakraborty says.

BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Samiki Bhattacharya accuses the Banerjee authorities of “vindictiveness and intolerance of a nationalist scheme”.

“It was reluctant from the precise beginning. It’s the radical of West Bengal who are suffering,” Bhattacharya says.