According to an official release, the Cabinet approved restructuring the rural drinking water programme to shift its focus from infrastructure creation to service delivery and sustainable management of rural water supply systems under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0.

The government also approved an increase in central assistance to Rs 3.59 lakh crore from Rs 2.08 lakh crore approved earlier, implying an additional central share of Rs 1.51 lakh crore.

As part of the revamped framework, a national digital platform named Sujalam Bharat will be introduced to digitally map rural drinking water infrastructure. Under the system, each village will be assigned a unique Sujal Gaon or Service Area ID, enabling digital monitoring of the entire water supply chain from source to household tap.

The programme will also strengthen community participation. Under the Jal Arpan initiative, Gram Panchayats and village water and sanitation committees will be involved in certifying completion of water supply works and formally taking over schemes. The government will also promote Jal Utsav as an annual community-led maintenance and review event to encourage local ownership and water conservation.

Launched in 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide tap water connections to all rural households. From a baseline of 3.23 crore rural households with tap water connections in 2019, more than 12.56 crore additional households have been connected so far. As of now, about 15.80 crore households, or 81.61% of the 19.36 crore rural households identified by states and union territories, have tap water connections.

The government said Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 aims to achieve universal rural tap water coverage by December 2028 while ensuring sustainable operation, improved governance and citizen-centric water service delivery.

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