Centre says Telangana lying on Mission Bhagiratha award

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has been accused of ‘misleading’ people over the state receiving a national award for Mission Bhagiratha. The central government's department of water resources, in a statement on Saturday, said the claims by the Telangana government on these issues were not only misleading, but “were not based on facts."

It may be recalled that on Thursday, the state government claimed that Mission Bhagiratha has been selected for a national award for supply of drinking water to all households in the state.

In Saturday’s statement, issued through the Press Information Bureau, the Centre said misleading items have been reported including claims that the “centre through National Jal Jeevan Mission reviewed Mission Bhagiratha scheme, and that each household was getting 100 litres per capita quality drinking water under Mission Bhagiratha, that inspections were conducted in 320 randomly selected villages across Telangana, and that all villages were provided uninterrupted, daily quality drinking water through taps.”

The Department of Water Resources declared that it did not carry out any “assessment of Mission Bhagiratha scheme.” All that it looked at was part of its ‘Functionality Assessment 2022’ to assess functionality of tap water connection against the NJJM norms of 55 litres per capita per day (LPCD) and quality as per BIS 10500 standards.  

It said the Functionality Assessment data indicates that in Telangana, out of total 12,570 sampled households in 409 villages, found 8% of households were getting less than 55 liters per capita per day of drinking water. Similarly, out of total sampled households, 5% were found to be receiving water with quality that was not up to the NJJM norms.

The department said Telangana was being given an award in the category of supplying regular water to rural households on October 2. “However, regularity in water supply is one of the many parameters adopted for overall functionality assessment. It may also be noted that although the state has reported 100% of tap water connection, it has not got it certified through Gram Panchayats as required under National Jal Jeevan Mission.”