Maharashtra’s Jal Jeevan Mission Halts as Centre Withholds Funds Amid Shortage of Funds

Maharashtra’s plan to provide clean tap water to every rural household under the Jal Jeevan Mission has hit a financial roadblock. Centre also withdrew its grant support for the flagship scheme, the state is now expected to bear the full cost of ongoing and future works. This comes at a time when state is already struggling to clear pending bills worth ₹12,000 crore for completed projects, reported HT.

On July 7, the Maharashtra Government informed the Legislative Council that it has not received central funds for the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme since October 2024 and has been using funds from the state’s coffers to complete ongoing projects. It also stated that a total of 51,558 rural water supply schemes were approved under the programme. While 25,549 projects have been completed over the past five years, about 26,009 schemes remain unfinished.

As cited by HT, the officials said that one of the biggest reasons for the delays is the acute shortage of funds. On June 16, in a letter to states and Union territories the Jal Shakti ministry wrote, “central grants-in-aid” towards extending the scheme would be released for “eligible states only after getting approval from the competent authority.” The ministry is carrying out “vigorous checks” on ongoing and proposed projects in various states to verify they comply with rules.

Eligibility and Liability

The Centre will pay only its share of the cost which is defined in the scheme as “central liability” where 50% of the total will be paid by the Centre while the other 50% will be coming from the states.

Moreover, the states have been told that the federal funding for the remainder of the programme, which seeks to connect each of the country’s 193.6 million rural households with piped water, will be vetted and only eligible states and projects will receive grants from the Centre.

According to HT, the Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in 2019 by the central government to provide functional tap water connections to all rural households by 2024. The Centre had approved a total outlay of ₹2.08 lakh crore for the scheme between 2019–20 and 2023–24, with states like Maharashtra receiving 50% of the funding as a central grant. The remainder was to be borne by the state.