PM Modi lays foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in UP

New Delhi, Nov 22: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts of Vindhyachal region of Uttar Pradesh this morning through video conferencing. UP CM Yogi Adityanath also present at the ceremony.

At the event, PM Modi said if there is any region that was neglected for decades after independence, then it is this region that was neglected the most.

"Be it Vindhyachal or Bundelkhand -despite having a lot of resources, these regions became regions of deficiencies. In spite of having several rivers, these regions came to be known as the most thirsty & drought-affected regions. So many people were forced to migrate from here," he said.

Addressing the event, he said,"In 70 years drinking water supply projects could be regulated only in 398 villages in Vindhya region. Today we are here to take forward such projects in over 3,000 villages of the region."

The projects will provide household tap water connections in all rural households of 2,995 villages and will benefit about 42 lakh population of these districts.

Village Water and Sanitation Committees or Paani Samiti have been constituted in all these villages, who will shoulder the responsibility of operation and maintenance.

The total estimated cost of the projects is over Rs. 5,555 Crore. The projects are planned to be completed in 24 months.

Announced on 15th August last year by the Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort, Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide functional household tap connections to every rural home of the country by 2024.

At the time of announcement of the mission in August, 2019, out of 18.93 Crore rural households, only 3.23 crore households or 17 per cent had tap water connections.

15.70 crore households to be provided with tap connections in next 4 years. In the last 15 months, despite Covid-19 pandemic, 2.63 crore households have been given tap water connections.

At present about 5.86 crore or 30.67 per cent rural households are having tap water connections.

AIR correspondent reports, People are eagerly waiting for the moment when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the 23 drinking water projects in Vindhyachal region.

People were seen very much enthused and feeling happy as these projects would transform the lifestyle of people in this backward area as at many places they have to fetch drinking water from miles away.

Really speaking these projects will solve a big problem of the people in the region as the water table here has gone down and a lot of time of people is wasted in collecting water.

Being this as plateau area, the problem is usually intensified during the summer season.

Drinking water has always been a big challenge in Bundelkhand and Vindhyachal region.

State government spokesperson told that there will be established 9 water treatment projects costing rupees 2,343 crores in Mirzapur district and 14 projects costing Rs. 3,212 crores in Sonbhadra district.

More than 21 lakh 87 thousand population of 1,606 villages in Mirzapur district and 19 lakh 53 thousand population of 1,389 villages in Sonbhadra district will be benefited by these drinking water projects.