Srinagar|Sept,21: Nearly 63 per cent of the 3,253 water supply schemes taken up under the Jal Jeevan Mission in Jammu and Kashmir are non-functional despite expenditure of around Rs 7,000 crore, while even the schemes officially shown as functional are not fully operational, a House committee of the J&K Legislative Assembly has found.
The findings are part of a 1,252-page report tabled by committee chairman and National Conference legislator Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi in the Assembly on Monday, exposing widespread deficiencies in the planning, execution and monitoring of the flagship drinking water programme.
The panel said 37 per cent of the schemes claimed by the Jal Shakti Department to be functional were also found to be only partially operational. It further disputed official figures on Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs), saying field inspections showed that significantly fewer households were actually receiving safe and adequate drinking water than indicated in government records.
In some locations, the committee found raw water being supplied to households while filtration plants remained non-functional.
The panel attributed the failure to what it termed “gross negligence” by the Apex Level Committee, Executive Committee, District Level Committees and officials responsible for overseeing the mission.
It said the multi-level institutional mechanism created for planning, supervision and monitoring had effectively failed, with higher-level committees allegedly avoiding critical decisions and passing responsibilities to subordinate officials.
“The result has been an absence of proper planning, supervision and effective monitoring,” the report said.
The committee’s findings followed an examination of departmental records, detailed project reports, tender and technical documents, water-quality data and field inspections across Jammu and Kashmir. The panel was constituted in 2025 after legislators raised concerns over alleged irregularities in the implementation of JJM. Earlier field inspections had also flagged delays and discrepancies in the execution of schemes.
The report questioned the decision of the Jal Shakti Department to switch from GI pipes to High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipes in 2023, several years after the launch of JJM.
According to the committee, the change was made midway through implementation and resulted in additional expenditure and delays. It also noted that the detailed project reports were not revised despite directions from the Committee of Engineers.
The panel also flagged expenditure on civil works without confirmation of water sources, saying such decisions contributed to both financial losses and failure of the mission.
Ground inspections uncovered further deficiencies in execution. The committee said GI and HDPE distribution pipes were found lying above ground at almost all the sites it inspected, despite contractual and technical requirements for underground installation.
It said contractors appeared to have claimed payment for underground laying even where the pipes had been left exposed, increasing their vulnerability to damage.
The report also pointed to below-standard civil works, shifting of schemes from approved sites, irregularities in laying distribution networks, questionable inclusion of existing or ongoing schemes under JJM in the name of retrofitting, irregularities in contract awards and inadequate involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The panel further found that the entire rural population had not been covered as envisaged under the mission and that several schemes had been delayed because of unresolved land and other disputes.
It also raised questions over the posting of an engineer facing allegations of malpractice as Chief Engineer, Jammu, without vigilance clearance.
On the much-publicised household tap connections, the committee said the figures available in official records did not match the situation on the ground.
“The inaccuracies come across as giving a false impression as regards the implementation of JJM,” the report said, adding that on-the-spot verification found that far fewer households than reflected in official records were actually receiving water of the prescribed quality.
The committee has recommended an 18-point corrective framework, including constitution of a high-level committee to audit all JJM water supply schemes and identify officers and engineers responsible for the alleged irregularities.
It has also recommended fixing responsibility on officials, contractors, suppliers and agencies involved in the procurement, approval or use of substandard material and taking action under the relevant laws and service rules.
The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in 2019 with the objective of providing functional tap-water connections to every rural household. The J&K mission covers thousands of water-supply schemes, with the House Committee having previously examined departmental records and conducted extensive field inspections as part of its probe.
