Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Gram Panchayats and Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC) on the Jal Jeevan mission today (October 2) at 11 am via video conferencing.
PM Modi on his Twitter handle wrote, "At 11 AM tomorrow, 2nd October, I would be taking part in an interesting programme relating to Jal Shakti and rural empowerment. I would interact with Gram Panchayats and Pani Samitis. Jal Jeevan Mission App and Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh would be launched."
The PM will launch the mission application for improving awareness among stakeholders, and also for mission schemes' transparency and accountability.
PM Modi will also launch Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh today. Under this scheme, any individual, institution, corporation, or philanthropist, in India or abroad, can contribute to providing tap water connection in the nation's rural household, school, Anganwadi centre, ashram shala, and other public institutions.
There will also be nationwide Gram Sabhas on Jal Jeevan Mission today, a release issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. The Gram Sabhas will discuss the planning and management of water supply in villages and will also work on long-term water security.
The PMO said, "Pani Samitis play a key role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of village water supply systems. Out of over 6 lakh villages, Pani Samitis/ VWSCs have been constituted in around 3.5 lakh villages. More than 7.1 lakh women have been trained to test the quality of water by using Field Test Kits."
This comes after PM Modi had announced the Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 20129 to provide tap water to every household. When the mission was launched, only 3.23 Crore (17 percent) rural households had a tap water supply.
Meanwhile, in the last two years, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, over 5 crore households have been provided with tap water connections.
