All households in Gujarat will get tap water connections under the Centre's 'Nal Se Jal Yojana' by the year 2022, ahead of the year 2024 target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told the Legislative Assembly on Saturday.
Rupani said 17 lakh households in the state are yet to be covered under the ambitious scheme aimed at providing drinking water through taps.
“People of north Gujarat suffered for years due to contaminated ground water. We want to eliminate our dependence on hand pumps and provide drinking water through tap connections. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of the year 2024, Gujarat will meet this target in the next 17 months,” Rupani told the House.
He was responding to queries raised by Congress MLAs on the status of water supply in the state.
The CM said the state government had allocated Rs 4,000 crore for the 'Nal Se Jal' project.He said 82 per cent of the total work on the project has already been completed.
“We are planning to provide 1 lakh tap connections every month to cover the remaining 17 lakh houses in the next 17 months. Out of the total 95 lakh beneficiaries identified under the project, 17 lakh are yet to be covered,” the CM said.
“We are using the lift irrigation technology to bring water to the doorstep of each and every household. Not a single village will be left out by 2022,” he said.
Listing challenges, the chief minister said providing water tap connections in remote tribal and mountainous regions is proving difficult.