New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS): The residents of Bilkhiriya Kalan Gram Panchayat, adjacent to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh are a happier and healthier lot today, as the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme has brought a complete turnaround in their daily lives.
Today, they have access to clean and potable water at their homes and don't have to walk miles to get it, like earlier.
The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched by the PM Narendra Modi government in 2019, with an aim to provide clean drinking water to every household in rural India, through individual household tap connections.
Many beneficiaries of the scheme, speaking to IANS, shared how the scheme helped overcome their daily rigours of bringing water from faraway places and enabled them to focus more on earning a livelihood.
Pushpa Thakur, a woman beneficiary, said that they don't have to go out to get water as it is available at home itself.
"We save a lot of time due to this. Earlier, we had to go out to long distances to fetch water. We didn't get time for other work. Even if there were hand pumps, sometimes they worked and sometimes did not work," she said.
The woman resident said that the entire gram panchayat is thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme.
"When this scheme was not there, we had to go to areas far away from the village to collect water. And to fill water, one had to stand in line from 3 o'clock in the night and wait for one's turn. It took two hours to bring water to the house. Today, water comes from taps at 6 a.m.," she further said.
Sushma Sen, another woman beneficiary, said, "The scheme has benefitted us a lot, clean water is reaching our houses. Earlier, there was no potable water, we had to visit long distances, even wells to bring water."
Mishri Lal Gurjar, the sarpanch of Bilkhiriya Kalan Gram Panchayat, said that the entire village population is benefitting from the Jal Jeevan Mission and they are deeply grateful to Prime Minister Modi for bringing a drastic change in their daily lives.
Bhopal Collector Kaushalendra Vikram Singh said that 76 per cent of households in all the gram panchayats, adjacent to Bhopal have got access to tap water connection and the rest will also be covered up soon, by the Public Health Engineering Department.