India's budget lags on drinking water funds

摘要

India's Union Budget, announced at the start of February, stopped short of back-ing the first-year plan of the ambitious $50 billion drinking water programme aimed at 100% tap connectivity, the Jal Jee-van Mission (JJM). Although the central government said it would provide 58% of the total funds required throughout the course of the JJM programme, the Ist February budget allo-cated just INR115 billion ($1.6 billion) to JJM for the first year of its five-year mis-sion plan. This was a surprisingly small amount compared to the overall first-year programme requirement of INR208 billion ($2.9 billion) mentioned in the JJM guide-lines released in January 2020.