Minister of State for Water Power vs Somanna said on Thursday that the Water Life Mission (JJM) operating guidelines were replaced after considering the requests of various states, seeking central support for increase in additional cost of raw materials due to Covid-19 epidemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis.
In the written reply to the Lok Sabha, Somna said, “Given the requests of various states seeking central support to meet the additional cost of raw materials, the Kovid -19 epidemic and Russia -Ukraine have increased due to the crisis, the operations of the mission with the impact of 21.06.2022 were made during the implementation during the mission.”
Somna’s reply came in response to a question asked by Samajwadi Party (SP) member Anand Bhadoria, which wanted to know that “a few years ago a change in tender rules under JJM, has caused a huge additional cost for the rupee of crores of rupees in the states”.
The government’s answer in response to questions about changes about changes in operational guidelines, resulting in an increase in cost, is important in view of concerns in some government classes that the cost of JJM works in some states increased.
On 21 May, an investigation of data uploaded by states and center areas on JMM dashboard revealed that three years ago significant changes in JJM guidelines had removed the check at spending, which increased the cost.
As a result, the total cost for 14,586 schemes increased to Rs 16,839 crore, which increased by 14.58 percent from their estimated cost. At the amendment of the guidelines in June 2022, Gajendra Ah Shekhawat was leading the Ministry of Power.
The payment of tender premium was banned in the original JJM guidelines issued in 2019. However, two and a half years later, the Ministry of Jal Shakti made a significant change in these guidelines on 21 June 2022, with the approval of the “competent authority”. The Ministry defined the “approved cost” and removed two words from the “tender premium”. This paved the way for payment of tender premium.
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Earlier this month, Water Power Minister CR Patil said that the Center has stopped the payment of tender premium under the Rural Nal Jal Yojana.
The tender premium refers to a bidder quotation to the additional amount, which is higher than the approved cost of the government.
Responding to a question in The Indian Express’s Idea Exchange Program, Patil said, “We have stopped the tender premium.
In a written response to a question presented by Congress member creature Shinde, Somna said that the proposal to continue JJM by 2028 is under consideration by the government with a increased total outlay.
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Shain asked whether the government has demanded an additional 2.79 lakh crore for the completion of the mission “and whether the spending secretary led by the Secretary has approved only one part of the required amount and proposed a 46% reduction in central funding support by December 2028.”
In response to Shinde’s question, Somna said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitarman announced the expansion of the Water Life Mission with a “total outlay” by 2028, during his budget speech 2025-26.
“Accordingly, by 2028, the government has been considered with a total outlay extended for the continuity of Jal Jeevan Mission,” Somna said.
Since the launch of JJM in 2019, the total estimated cost of Rs 8.29 lakh crore with 6.4 lakh water supply schemes – Rs 3.60 lakh crore (Center: 2.08 lakh crore, Rs 2.08 lakh crore, Rs 1.52 lakh crore) – has been approved by the states.
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To meet the requirement of additional funds, the Ministry approached the Expenditure Finance Committee, in which the Expenditure Secretary was chaired, so that the current Rs 2.79 lakh crore could be approved in the central funding above Rs 2.08 lakh crore and above. But EFC recommended only Rs 1.51 lakh crore as a central share, 46 percent less than what was sought by the Ministry, as reported by the Indian Express on 21 April.
Like the Lok Sabha, members of the Rajya Sabha have also questioned the increase in JJM cost due to changes in guidelines in 2022. On July 21, the members of the SP asked Jal Shakti Minister about the change and cost increase in the JJM guidelines by the SP members.
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