Sixty-three per cent of the 3,253 Water Supply Schemes (WSS) taken up under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Jammu and Kashmir are non-operational despite expenditure of around Rs 7,000 crore, a House Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly has found, raising serious questions over planning, execution, procurement, quality control and monitoring of the flagship rural drinking-water programme.
The findings are contained in the voluminous 1253-page report of the House Committee constituted to examine alleged irregularities in the implementation of JJM in the Union Territory. The report was laid before the Legislative Assembly on September 21 by committee chairman Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi. The committee was constituted on April 9, 2025, to examine alleged irregularities in implementation of the Mission.
“The result is that 63 per cent of 3253 WSS involving an expenditure of Rs. 7000.00 crore are non-operational,” the report states. It adds that even the 37 percent of schemes claimed by the Jal Shakti Department to be functional were “not fully operational”.
The committee said the institutional mechanism established to oversee JJM had failed to discharge its responsibilities effectively, resulting in inadequate planning, supervision and monitoring.
“The House Committee is of the considered view that there has been complete abdication of authority,” the report said, referring to the Apex Level Committee, Executive Committee and District Level Committees.
The panel attributed the failure to achieve the Mission’s objectives within the stipulated timeframe to what it described as “gross negligence” on the part of these committees and the officers who manned them.
According to the report, 37 per cent of schemes claimed by the Jal Shakti Department to be functional were also “not fully operational” in several cases.
The committee also questioned official figures relating to Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs), saying discrepancies emerged between departmental records and ground conditions during field inspections.
The panel said records supplied to it contained what it described as “false claims” regarding the number of FHTCs provided in habitations and the number of habitations covered.
“On spot visits, the House Committee came to know that far less than the number of FHTC indicated in the record, have actually been provided benefit of the Safe and Adequate Drinking Water of the prescribed quality,” the report said.
The committee also questioned the department’s claim that 81 per cent of rural households in J&K had tap-water connections as of March 2025, saying the figures required physical verification.
The House Committee was headed by Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi. Its 13 members were Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, Ali Mohammad Dar, Altaf Ahmad Wani, Aijaz Ahmad Jan, Rajiv Jasrotia, Ranbir Singh Pathania, Tanvir Sadiq, Javaid Riyaz Bedar, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Rafiq Ahmad Naik, Arjun Singh Raju and Iftikar Ahmad.
The committee subsequently undertook field inspections to assess the implementation of JJM works. It inspected schemes in Rajouri and Poonch, among other areas, before finalising its findings.
One of the major concerns highlighted by the committee was the failure to establish the sustainability and adequacy of water sources before executing schemes.
The panel found instances where expenditure had been incurred on pumping systems, storage facilities, transmission networks and distribution infrastructure without adequately establishing the viability of the underlying water source.
In WSS Shirpora Bangil, the committee found high sulphur and iron content in the source and said this had rendered the scheme useless. It termed the expenditure “unfruitful” and directed fresh testing of the source.
“Providing of FHTC is immaterial in absence of safe and viable source,” the committee observed.
The report also cited schemes affected by land and source disputes. These included WSS Dachnipora in Pahalgam, WSS Lelhara, WSS Syed Mantaqi Khrew and WSS Greenland Wuyan. In WSS Bugam Dooniwari, the committee said Rs 10 crore had been spent without benefiting the targeted population because of a source dispute.
The committee has also scrutinised the decision to shift from GI pipes to HDPE pipes during JJM implementation.
It noted that the Jal Shakti Department, Jammu, authorised Executive Engineers in April 2023 to use HDPE pipes instead of GI pipes depending on site feasibility. However, an earlier technical committee had recommended modification of DPRs before the change.
The panel said the national-level communications cited in support of the shift did not mandate compulsory replacement of GI pipes with HDPE pipes and questioned why the decision was taken several years after the Mission’s launch.
It said the decision had significant financial and operational implications and “ought to have been taken by the Apex Level Committee”.
The report also records allegations made by retired IAS officer Ashok Parmar concerning procurement orders and changes in pipe specifications. Parmar alleged that procurement orders worth Rs 4,000 crore were placed without approval and that HDPE pipes were ordered in violation of approved DPRs. The committee recorded these as allegations and evidence presented before it, rather than independently establishing every allegation.
The committee separately examined tube-well projects and raised concerns over tendering, technical qualifications, quality assurance and functionality.
It said some tube wells had failed to meet desired standards and noted submissions that water from certain sources was unsuitable for human consumption. The committee observed that quality-assurance mechanisms appeared to have been inadequately enforced.
The panel also questioned the effectiveness of third-party monitoring agencies hired for audit and inspection of JJM works. It said field observations regarding faulty execution indicated that such agencies had failed to discharge their obligations adequately despite being paid for monitoring and audit work.
The committee has recommended constitution of a High-Level Committee to conduct a comprehensive audit of JJM and retrofitting schemes, including procurement of DI, GI and HDPE pipes and execution of civil works.
It has recommended identifying officers and engineers responsible for irregularities and initiating action against those found responsible under applicable rules.
The panel has also called for scrutiny of officers who served on the Apex Level, Executive and District Level Committees from their constitution until March 31, 2025, with their actions and omissions examined against the respective terms of reference.
A comprehensive technical, financial and administrative review of tube-well projects has also been recommended, covering functionality, water quality, payments released, pending liabilities and possible additional expenditure.
The committee said the problems identified were not confined to isolated technical failures but indicated “possible systemic deficiencies in planning, procurement, quality control, contract administration and project oversight”.
Its central finding is that the success of JJM cannot be measured merely through construction figures or tap connections recorded in official databases. The ultimate test, the committee said, is whether households are actually receiving safe and adequate drinking water.
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