THE GOVERNMENT has decided to send 100 teams of Central Nodal Officers for “ground inspection” of the Jal Jeevan Mission schemes across the country. The move follows a meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on May 8 to review the mission’s schemes.
The order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on Monday identified 99 nodal officers to inspect as many as 183 schemes across 135 districts in 29 states and Union Territories. Of these schemes, learnt to have been selected randomly, Madhya Pradesh has the most — 29, Rajasthan and Odisha 21 each, Karnataka 19, Uttar Pradesh 18, Kerala 10, and Gujarat and eight each.
The decision for a review comes two months after an Expenditure Secretary-led panel proposed a 46 per cent cut to the Water Resources Ministry’s proposal demanding Rs 2.79 lakh crore for completing the mission over four years ending December 2028. The cut came following hard questions by the Ministry of Finance over cost escalation, and concerns in some government sections that work contracts were inflated in some states.
According to sources, many of the 183 schemes shortlisted for inspection entail a cost of Rs 1,000 crore. The cumulative cost of these schemes is about Rs 1.50 lakh crore, which is about 20 per cent of the total cost of all schemes approved under the JJM since its inception, said a source.
Among the nodal officers selected for the inspection, 75 are Joint Secretaries, two are Joint Secretaries and Financial Advisors, and 106 are Directors, currently attached with different ministries and departments. A training program for these officials has been organised on May 23, where they will be briefed about the parameters to be followed during the ground inspection, said sources.
The GOVERNMENT has taken note of the escalation in costs towards providing tap water connections across states ruled by different political parties. A ‘ground inspection’ of work orders in different places will give a picture not just of the costs involved in executing the job, but also the quality of work.
A questionnaire has been prepared by the ministry, which the officials will carry during the ground inspection, they said.
Since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, 6.4 lakh water supply schemes with total estimated cost of Rs 8.29 lakh crore—more than double of the scheme’s original outlay of Rs 3.60 lakh crore (Centre: Rs 2.08 lakh crore, States:1.52 lakh crore) — have been approved by the states.
To meet the additional requirement of funds, the Jal Shakti Ministry had approached the Expenditure Finance Committee, headed by the Expenditure Secretary, to approve Rs 2.79 lakh crore additional Central funding over and above Rs 2.08 lakh crore. However, the as the Central share, which is 46 per cent lower than Rs 2.79 lakh crore sought by the Jal Shakti Ministry, as reported by on April 21, 2025.
The states where the nodal officers will fan out soon are: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
