Lucknow, Aug 14 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh will complete providing tap water connections to 9 crore families in the state under Har Ghar Jal Yojana on 77th Independence Day on Tuesday.

A state government spokesperson said that tap water supply will be provided to more than 1.5 crore houses in rural areas of UP.

“This will be the first time that more than half of the rural families of the state will be connected with tap water,” he said.

Principal secretary, Namami Gange and rural water supply department, Anurag Srivastava said, “The gift of tap water given to 9 crore villagers on Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav year is a big achievement for the government”.

At the time of launch of Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, only 1.97 per cent rural households had access to tap water.

“In the past 4 years, tap connections have been provided to 56.83 per cent of the rural families in UP,” he said.

Under the Har Ghar Jal Yojana, tap water is being provided to more than 40,000 homes per day in UP. Besides, tap water supply has started to 1,49,14,331 rural families under the scheme till Sunday.

More than 8.94 crore villagers have started getting the direct benefit of pure drinking water.