<span style="color: #222222;">Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has expressed concern over implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission ( JJM) in West Bengal. Under JJM, West Bengal has been  allocated  1610 Crore rupees in 2020-21. Mr Shekhawat in his letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal has expressed concern over the slow progress of works.<br />'' <br />'' In his letter, Mr  Shekhawat mentioned that under Jal Jeevan Mission funds are provided by Government of India based on the output in terms of household tap connections provided and the utilization of available funds. The letter said , Against the target of providing tap connections to 32 lakh households in the year 2019-20, only 4,750 tap connections were provided in the State. Further, West Bengal was allocated 994 Crore rupees  in 2019-20, out of which the State could only spend 428 Crore rupees.  For providing potable water to Arsenic/Fluoride- affected habitations , 573.36 Crore fund is still lying unutilized.<br />'' <br />'' The letter mentions that the allocation for the State has been increased from  994 Crore rupees in 2019-20 to 1,610.76 Crore in 2020-21 and with previous year's unspent balance, West Bengal has an assured availability of  2,760 Crore rupees of Central funds for JJM. The Jal Shakti Minister stressed that providing potable water to every rural household is a national priority and the State should make efforts to accomplish the goal in a time-bound manner.<br />''<br />''While stressing on the need for proper planning to be done to achieve the goal of JJM within the timeframe with focus on retrofitting/ augmentation of existing water supply systems to provide tap connections to remaining households, the Jal Shakti Minister said about 1 Crore households can be provided tap connections in 21,600 villages in the State .</span><br />