Guwahati: Across Assam’s hills and plains, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has altered the texture of village life. In many places where women once walked long distances carrying earthen pots to fetch water, taps have now appeared inside homes.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019, with the promise of “Har Ghar Jal”, the mission has so far provided functional household tap connections to 59,02,704 rural households in Assam out of a total 72,24,239 homes. This translates to 81.71% coverage as of March 24, 2026.
Yet, behind the impressive headline numbers lies a more uneven reality.
In several villages, pipelines remain unfinished, roads dug up during construction have not been restored, and many households say the taps installed under the scheme either do not function or supply water irregularly.
Over the past few years, the Centre has invested heavily in the programme in Assam. Between 2019-20 and 2024-25, the state received Rs 18,146.84 crore under the mission.
The year-wise allocation to Assam stood at Rs 442.36 crore in 2019-20, Rs 551.77 crore in 2020-21, Rs 4,200.87 crore in 2021-22, Rs 4,588.21 crore in 2022-23, Rs 6,204 crore in 2023-24, and Rs 2,159.63 crore in 2024-25.
However, no fresh central funds have been released to any state, including Assam, in 2025-26, as the original JJM programme expired in December 2024. The Assam government is currently managing expenditure through its own share, carry-over funds of Rs 111.06 crore, and recoveries made to complete partially executed schemes.
So far, expenditure in Assam this financial year stands at only Rs 12.10 crore, with just Rs 1.21 crore of the central share remaining unspent.
Despite the funding constraints, Assam has recorded a sharp rise in coverage — from around 16-17% in 2019 to over 81% today.
But the expansion has also exposed persistent implementation problems.
While official reports do not provide district-wise details of incomplete or non-functional projects, ground-level accounts suggest that a significant number of schemes remain unfinished or are not delivering water as intended.
In many areas, contractors are still awaiting final payments despite having completed their work. In districts such as Tinsukia, roads dug up for laying pipelines remain damaged even after two years. In some villages, taps have been installed, but water supply is either erratic or absent altogether.
In February 2026, the office of the Mission Director issued urgent instructions to clear pending bills so that divisions could raise fresh fund demands.
There is no official evidence to suggest that funds meant for the Jal Jeevan Mission were diverted to other schemes. However, audits have flagged irregularities in implementation, including excess payments to contractors and poor-quality work.
The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has recovered money in several instances. In one case in Guwahati, a contractor was asked to return Rs 93.42 lakh. The Centre also imposed a penalty of Rs 5.08 lakh on Assam during a nationwide review of irregularities.
Some contractors have been blacklisted for three years, while disciplinary action has been initiated against officials. The measures followed the Prime Minister’s directive calling for zero tolerance towards lapses in the scheme.
In a significant development, the Union Cabinet on March 10, 2026, approved an extension of the programme — often referred to as JJM 2.0, until December 2028.
The extended phase is expected to move beyond pipeline installation and focus on ensuring sustainable and reliable water supply, including regular service, community participation, and the revival of non-functional schemes.
For Assam, the extension is particularly important. Around 13.21 lakh households, many of them in remote, flood-prone and hilly areas, are still waiting for dependable drinking water connections.
At the same time, a major concern has emerged over pending payments to contractors, many of whom say they executed works using their own resources.
Contractors working under the PHE Department claim that dues amounting to nearly Rs 12,000 crore remain unpaid. Protests have been reported from districts such as Dibrugarh and Jorhat, with contractors saying the delays have pushed many families into severe financial distress
Apurba Lahan, secretary of the All Assam PHE Contractors Association, said the payment crisis has stalled a large number of projects.
“Two separate SOPs have been issued for old pending schemes and new ones under the extended mission. But in Assam, work under the extension has not yet started. Discussions are still going on in the department,” he said.
Lahan said that although around Rs 28,000 crore had been sanctioned for the programme, only about Rs 18,000 crore had been released so far.
“Many schemes are stuck midway. Some projects were about 70% complete, but contractors could not finish them because they have not received their dues,” he added.
The association estimates that pending contractor payments could be in the range of Rs 12,000 crore.
Activist Dilip Nath alleged large-scale irregularities in the implementation of the mission and called for an independent inquiry.
“Contractors are suffering and villagers are not getting water. There must be a high-level probe into how the funds were used,” he said.
He also recalled that in 2024, the Chief Secretary had ordered a halt to some JJM works following complaints of poor-quality construction.
For many rural families, the mission has undoubtedly improved daily life wherever it is functioning as intended. In a village near Jorhat, for instance, a mother said she no longer worries about her children drinking unsafe pond water.
But in places where pipelines remain incomplete and taps run dry, the promise of “Har Ghar Jal” continues to feel unfinished.
With Bihu festivities and Assembly elections approaching, contractors say uncertainty over payments has deepened frustration on the ground. For villagers too, the question remains far more basic: when will water begin flowing every day?
The next phase of the mission may promise course correction, but for thousands of households across Assam, the real measure of success will not be the number of tap connections installed — it will be whether water reliably reaches every home, every single day.