Almost 1 lakh water connections provided daily to households in India: PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he is giving a “Raksha Bandhan gift” to women of Manipur as he laid the foundation stone for water supply project through video conferencing.

“This project will give clean drinking water to Greater Imphal and 1,700 village in Manipur. It will provide a lifeline to these people,” PM Mod said. He added that it will help women in as many as one lakh families in the state,

The prime minister said that the project has been designed with the help of local panchayats and people living here, which he said is a “fine example of decentralisation”

“The Manipur Water Supply project will also generate employment for thousands of people,” PM Modi said. He also highlighted the fact that work to lay the pipelines was continuing even during the Covid-19 lockdown.

“The country did not stop due to Covid-19,” he said.

He also listed the scheme implemented by the Centre to help Manipur and various states during the coronavirus crisis.

“The Northeast is battling twin challenges - Covid-19 and flood. Many people have to leave their homes due to the flood. I assure you that everyone is with you in this difficult time,” said the prime minister.

The fund for the project has been provided by the Centre under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ to provide freshwater household tap connections (FHTCs) to 1,185 habitations with 1,42,749 households.

The Manipur Water Supply project, an externally funded project, was designed to provide FHTCs to remaining households in the Greater Imphal Planning area, 25 towns, and for 1,731 rural habitations covering 2,80,756 households in 16 districts of Manipur.

The project is an important component of the efforts of the state government to achieve the goal of ‘Har Ghar Jal’ by 2024. The project outlay is about Rs 3054.58 crore with a loan component funded by the New Development Bank.

Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla, Chief Minister N Biren Singh and his cabinet colleagues, MPs, and MLAs joined the programme from Imphal. Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat and Dr Jitendra Singh also took part in the programme.

Chief minister Singh said that Manipur has developed under the BJP government. He also listed the achievements of the state government, and thanked the Centre for giving it all the help.

Shekhawat, the Jal Shakti minister, said that the water supply project will cost more than Rs 3,000 crore.

The central government had initiated the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ to provide safe and adequate quantity of drinking water to every rural household of the country by 2024 with the motto ‘Har Ghar Jal’.

The programme also implements source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, water conservation, rainwater harvesting.