The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has delivered a damning assessment of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Maharashtra, revealing that 75 per cent of water supply schemes launched between August 2019 and March 2024 remained incomplete, while poor planning caused the mission's expenditure to nearly double its original estimates, ballooning to ₹26,410.51 crore against an initial projection of ₹13,668 crore.

Scale of the Shortfall

Of the 51,560 water supply schemes initiated across Maharashtra during the five-year review period, only 12,703 — a mere 24.64 per cent — were completed. The remaining 38,857 schemes, representing 75.30 per cent of the total, were found languishing at various stages of implementation, according to the CAG report.

At the mission's launch in August 2019, Maharashtra had 138.54 lakh rural households, of which 48.44 lakh already had tap connections. The state's target was to extend coverage to 1.46 crore rural households; by March 2024, it had provided Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to 1.25 crore households — falling short of the goal. More critically, the audit found that 1,08,000 households were omitted entirely from District Action Plans, effectively denying them any access to the scheme.

Root Causes: Weak Planning and Missing Surveys

The CAG identified weak planning as the central failure. A mandatory baseline survey — foundational to any large-scale infrastructure rollout — was never conducted. Village action plans were prepared without incorporating sustainability parameters, and district action plans were not drawn up for the entire duration of the scheme.

Critically, schemes were sanctioned without first securing verified, sustainable water sources. These foundational lapses, the CAG noted, triggered repeated mid-course corrections that compounded delays and inflated costs.

Cost Revisions and Financial Overruns

The state ultimately allocated ₹27,559.26 crore against the original ₹13,668 crore estimate, with actual expenditure reaching ₹26,410.51 crore — nearly twice the initial budget. The CAG found that 27 per cent of all state-level schemes — 13,835 out of 51,560 — required aggressive cost revisions.

These revisions were driven by changes in project scope to accommodate additional inhabitants, shifts in water sources and land locations, execution of extra works, and contracts awarded well above tender rates. Together, these factors inflated project costs by an additional ₹9,608.87 crore. This is not an isolated pattern; CAG audits of centrally sponsored schemes across states have repeatedly flagged similar cycles of under-planning followed by cost escalation.

CAG Recommendations to Maharashtra

The CAG has put forward three principal recommendations. First, it has called for strengthening fund-flow planning to ensure the timely release and optimal utilisation of both Central and State fiscal allocations. Second, it recommended enforcing strict timelines for remitting interest earned on unspent balances to the Consolidated Fund, alongside swift submission of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) and audited accounts. Third, it urged the state to devise a rigorous regulatory mechanism with tighter internal controls to prevent inadmissible expenditure and boost regular monitoring.

With a significant number of schemes still mid-execution, how Maharashtra responds to these findings will determine whether the mission's original promise of universal rural tap water access can be meaningfully salvaged.