First BJP Cabinet in Bengal will begin its journey with welcome gift of Rs 2,700 crore cleared under Jal Jeevan Mission

Kolkata, May 9 (IANS) The first BJP-ruled state government in West Bengal led by the state’s first BJP Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, will begin its journey after the oath ceremony on Saturday with a gift from the Union Jal Shakti ministry which had cleared an amount of Rs 2,700 crore under the central ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ project.

A communication from the Union Ministry on this count reached the current state secretariat of Nabanna on Friday evening, where it was said that the amount of Rs 2,700 crore will land in the state exchequer immediately after signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the central and the state governments on this count, confirmed an insider from the state secretariat.

He explained that the said amount of Rs 2,700 crore was pending for the last two years because of the reluctance of the previous Trinamool Congress-ruled and Mamata Banerjee-led state government to accept the terms and conditions of the MoU.

However, the state secretariat insider added, recently there was a meeting between the secretaries of the Union Jal Shakti ministry and the state public health engineering department, where the complexities on this count were cleared and the state government representative gave a firm commitment to adhere to the terms and conditions of the MoU.

The Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in 2019, aimed to provide safe piped drinking water to all rural households in India, now extended as JJM 2.0 through 2028. As of early 2026, over 15.8 crore households (approx. 81.87 per cent) have been provided with tap connections, bringing functional water access to rural homes.

Meanwhile, the state secretariat insider, also said that dialogues have also started between the top officers of the Union Health Ministry and the West Bengal Health Department for implementation of Ayushman Bharat, the centrally-sponsored health insurance scheme, in West Bengal.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme could not be implemented in West Bengal because the previous Mamata Banerjee-led state government did not allow its implementation on grounds that the central scheme was redundant in the state because of West Bengal’s own health insurance scheme, Swastha Sathi.

In fact, in his successive campaign rallies in the state before the recently-concluded Assembly polls, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had launched scathing attacks against Mamata Banerjee for not allowing implementation of a number of centrally-sponsored welfare projects in the state in favour of her own, especially Ayushman Bharat.

–IANS

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