Free Water Connection in Tripura: 3.45 lakh Households accomplished, 4.15 lakh to be completed by December, says DWS official

11th March 2022

Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura

Agartala, March 11, 2022: Tripura government is determined to accomplish the target of providing free drinking water connection to 7 lakh 60,000 households approximately by December 2022 across the state.

The Tripura government earlier in November, 2018 announced Atal Jaldhara yojna paying a tribute to the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee aimed at providing clean water to each and every household in the state.

Meanwhile, Jal Jeevan Mission, a central government initiative under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, aims to ensure access to piped water for every household in India launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2019.

The incumbent state government has taken up the Atal Jaldhara Mission under Centrally sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission to connect each and every household in the state with tap water connection.

Speaking with Northeast Today on Friday, Chief Engineer of Tripura’s Drinking Water and Sanitation (DWS) department Rajib Debbarma said “Till March 10 of the ongoing financial year, we have completed providing free drinking water connection to 3 lakh 44 thousand 762 households across the state.”

“Although, the target is fixed to be achieved by December 2022 and now, more 4 lakh 15 thousand 238 connections have to be carried out. The COVID-19 pandemic had delayed our work. We are hopeful that the goal set by the Tripura government can be accomplished within December 2022 if no more obstacles arise in the coming days”, he added.

During the previous Leftist regime in Tripura, the government gave water supply connections among 19 thousand 251 families in lieu of money.

After initiating the Atal Jal Dhara Mission, the BJP-led government distributed water supply connections among 45 thousand 960 households in rural areas only in four months, spending an amount of Rs 65.91 crore. More 1 lakh 42 thousand 211 households received connection and government spent Rs 217.26 crore in 2019-20 FY; 3 lakh 82 thousand 365 households received connection in 2020-21 FY and spent Rs 750.67 crore; and also decided to distribute connection among 2 lakh 6 thousand 163 households spending an amount of Rs 1231.33 crore.

Department sources informed that the state government is working to provide safe drinking water to every hamlet of mountainous and plain area of Tripura. There are now 8723 localities in rural Tripura out of 8723 localities 6133 localities have already come under the drinking water scheme. The drinking water and sanitation department is working on a war footing basis to bring the remaining localities under a safe drinking water scheme.