New Delhi: The Union government has stopped the federal funding for the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – the Bharatiya Janata Party’s much touted programme to connect rural households with tap water – with states being asked to finish the rest of the work using their own finances, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Monday (February 2).Launched in 2019, the flagship scheme had an aim to link each of India’s 193.5 million rural households with tap water connections by the end of 2024. This was extended till December 2028 last year.However, in a written response to a query by AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, Jal Shakti minister C.R. Patil cited shortcomings in states’ implementation of the scheme. He said the states had to fulfil certain conditions and address all complaints before the funds could be released.The minister’s response came just a day after another person died in Indore’s contaminated water crisis after over a month of suffering, taking the official death count to 32.Madhya Pradesh high court, which has been hearing the case, has asked the state government to explain how the water contamination had “become so severe” that it resulted in human fatalities. Meanwhile, the government argued in the court that 16 deaths were directly caused by contaminated water, while other deaths were attributed to different medical reasons, placing the official figure at 23. The court has questioned this discrepancy, seeking clarity on the number and reason.On impact of JJM schemeAccording to a Hindustan Times report, currently, 157.9 million families, or 81.5% of the beneficiaries, have been provided with a functional doorstep water tap, according to the programme’s dashboard, including 16.72% households which had some form of tap water supply when the mission was being rolled out.However, as many as 35.64 million households are yet to be covered under the JJM scheme. Clean drinking water in rural households is one of the critical components for achieving universal access to safe drinking water in India.In response to another query by Trinamool Congress MP Sushmita Dev, V Somanna, the minister of state for Jal Shakti, informed that at the time of its launch, the government had approved a federal outlay of Rs 2.08 lakh crore for the programme and almost the entire allocation has been used up.“As such, no amount has been allocated to any State/UT, including Assam, in 2025-26. Additionally, water being a state subject, states have been advised to continue the implementation of ongoing works from their own resources,” the minister said in the written reply.Somanna also said the government hadn’t allocated funds to any state in the ongoing fiscal year, even as the Union budget has provided outlays for continuation of the scheme till December 2028. As per a report by The Telegraph, the 2025-26 budget had proposed an outlay of Rs 66,770 crore for the JJM scheme, but the revised estimate (RE) slashed the allocation by nearly 75% to Rs 16,944 crore. In 2023-24, the scheme was allocated Rs 70,162 in the budget estimate, but the amount was later revised to Rs 22,694 crore. For 2026-27, the government has proposed to spend Rs 67,363 crore on the scheme.Meanwhile, the outlays in both previous years were reserved entirely for revenue expenditure – salaries, maintenance, etc. – and no fund has been allocated for capital spending, as per the Hindustan Times report.This means that the mission, which requires laying massive infrastructure such as linking reservoirs to village tanks, has received no funding for new assets.