Rs 1,346.60 crore work done under JJM unpaid

No funds received during 2025-26 under JJM: Govt

Irfan Tramboo

SRINAGAR, Sept 30: As Rs 1,346.60 crore work done under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) remains unpaid in J&K, the Government today said that no funds were released under the scheme during 2025-26 amid a change in the funding mechanism.

The disclosure was made by the Jal Shakti Department in reply to a starred question by MLA Chander Prakash Ganga today.

Of the total unpaid claims, Rs 894.35 crore pertains to Jammu division and Rs 452.25 crore to Kashmir division, according to the detailed statement annexed to the reply.

The department said the claims relate to New Single Village Schemes (SVS), New Multi Village Schemes (MVS) and retrofitting works.

The department attributed the pending payments to very limited fund releases in 2024-25 and no releases during 2025-26.

Among individual divisions, PHE Division Kathua has the highest unpaid claim at Rs 85 crore, followed by QCPD Jammu at Rs 82.20 crore, PHE Division Udhampur at Rs 81.79 crore, PHE Division Rajouri at Rs 74.95 crore and PHE Division Bijbehara at Rs 74.80 crore. PHE Division Shopian has unpaid claims of Rs 56.16 crore.

The Government said the funding arrangement has changed following the extension of JJM 2.0 up to December 2028.

Under the new arrangement, Single Village Schemes will be funded upfront, while Multi Village Schemes will follow a reimbursement model, requiring the UT to initially incur the expenditure from its own resources.

For the current year, the Government of India has allocated Rs 905.74 crore, including Rs 461.61 crore for SVS and Rs 384.87 crore for MVS.

The department said a sanction for payment through SNA-SPARSH had been received and Rs 128.88 crore released to field divisions for SVS work-done claims.

Since the release was lower than the pending claims, payments were made proportionately among schemes with outstanding claims, the department said.

For MVS, the Jal Shakti Department submitted a demand of Rs 427.63 crore to the Finance Department on September 15, comprising Rs 384.87 crore as the central share and Rs 42.76 crore as the UT share. The funds, however, are yet to be released.

The department also said 1,426 retrofitting schemes require a balance cost of Rs 2,354 crore and could be completed during the current financial year if funds are made available.

The department said it had been taking up the issue with the Finance Department since September 2025 and had sought augmentation of the UT Capex allocation.

It also proposed providing Rs 500 crore within the approved PHE allocation by correspondingly reducing the UT share under the CSS component.

However, the Finance Department advised it to await the outcome of a House Committee investigation into alleged irregularities and consult the committee before seeking additional funds.

The Jal Shakti Department subsequently proposed Rs 1,700 crore under the Special Assistance Scheme for Capital Investment (SASCI), but no funds had been released by the Finance Department so far.

The reply also highlighted a manpower gap of 4,166 posts in the department. Against a sanctioned strength of 12,453 technical and operational posts, only 8,287 are filled.

Jammu has 2,088 vacancies against 4,995 sanctioned posts, while Kashmir has 2,078 vacancies against 7,458.

The department said it was managing the manpower requirement through rationalisation and redeployment and that recruitment would be undertaken under existing rules and regulations.

It also said operational and security requirements at water-supply schemes were being addressed through deployment and rationalisation of existing manpower.