SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has said around Rs 1,350 crore in work-done claims under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) are pending and that these liabilities will be cleared as the first charge, subject to availability and release of funds.
The Jal Shakti Department said the claims comprise approximately Rs 400 crore for new Single Village Schemes (SVS), Rs 500 crore for new Multi Village Schemes (MVS) and Rs 450 crore for retrofitting schemes.
The department said Rs 128.88 crore has already been released to field divisions for payment of work-done claims related to SVS. As the amount available is lower than the outstanding claims, the funds have been distributed in equal proportion among schemes with pending liabilities to provide relief to the executing agencies.
For MVS, the department said a demand of Rs 427.63 crore, comprising Rs 384.87 crore as the Central share and Rs 42.76 crore as the Union Territory share, was submitted to the Finance Department on September 15, 2026. The funds have not yet been released.
Under the extended JJM 2.0, which has been continued by the Government of India until December 2028, new schemes will be funded in a 90:10 Centre-UT pattern. SVS will receive upfront funding, while MVS will operate through a reimbursement mechanism under which the UT has to incur expenditure from its own resources before seeking reimbursement from the Centre.
The department said no Central funding would be provided for retrofitting schemes, which would therefore have to be completed from UT resources.
For 1,426 retrofitting schemes, the department said a balance cost of around Rs 2,354 crore was required. It added that all these schemes could be completed during the current financial year if funds were made available.
The Jal Shakti Department said it had repeatedly taken up the issue of funding with the Finance Department since September 2025 and had also sought funding under the Special Assistance for Capital Investment (SASCI) scheme.
For the current financial year, the Government of India has conveyed an allocation of Rs 905.74 crore for JJM, including Rs 461.61 crore for SVS and Rs 384.87 crore for MVS.
The department said it had proposed in August that Rs 1,700 crore be provided under SASCI for the retrofitting works. However, no release had been made by the Finance Department as of the date of the reply.
The department also referred to the earlier position regarding a House Committee constituted to examine alleged irregularities and said the Finance Department had advised it to await the committee’s report before seeking additional funds. The department said the committee’s term expired on May 31, 2026, and that the matter had subsequently been taken up again with the Finance Department.
The Government’s response came to a starred question, D. No. 1/6/320, tabled by Sonawari MLA Hilal Akbar Lone on the release of contractors’ work-done liabilities, particularly for works executed under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
The department attributed the accumulation of unpaid claims to limited fund releases during 2024-25 and no funds during 2025-26. It said approximately Rs 6,600 crore had been spent during the preceding two years when funds were flowing regularly, after which execution slowed and eventually came to a halt by March 2025.
