SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has acknowledged unpaid work-done claims of nearly Rs 1,347 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), with Jammu province accounting for about Rs 894.35 crore and Kashmir province Rs 452.25 crore.
The figures were provided by the Jal Shakti Department in response to an unstarred question by MLA Bashir Ahmed Shah Veeri in the Legislative Assembly.
According to the department’s district-wise data, the total outstanding claims stand at Rs 1,346.60 crore, equivalent to Rs 134,659.72 lakh. The department, however, put the overall liability at approximately Rs 1,350 crore.
In Kashmir province, Anantnag has the highest unpaid claims at Rs 101.88 crore, followed by Baramulla at Rs 78.75 crore, Budgam at Rs 70.01 crore, Shopian at Rs 60.48 crore and Kulgam at Rs 47.80 crore. Srinagar has the lowest district-level figure at about Rs 56 lakh.
In Jammu province, Rajouri has the highest unpaid claims at Rs 156.48 crore, followed by Jammu at Rs 123.74 crore, Kathua at Rs 119.65 crore and Udhampur at Rs 100.88 crore. The Quality Control and Procurement Division, Jammu, has reported a further Rs 82.20 crore covering districts across the province.
The government said the accumulated liabilities resulted after executing agencies continued work in anticipation of regular funding. It said approximately Rs 6,600 crore had been spent during the preceding two years, but the pace of execution slowed and eventually stopped by March 2025 after there was no substantial release of funds towards the latter part of 2024-25 and no funds during 2025-26.
The department said clearing the work-done claims would be treated as the first charge under its plans for JJM.
Following the extension of JJM as JJM 2.0 up to December 2028, the funding mechanism has also changed. New single-village schemes will continue to receive upfront funding from the Government of India under the 90:10 funding pattern, while multi-village schemes will operate through reimbursement, requiring the Union Territory to initially meet expenditure from its own resources. Retrofitting schemes will not receive central funding and will have to be completed from UT resources.
Of the approximately Rs 1,350 crore in work-done claims, around Rs 400 crore relates to single-village schemes, Rs 500 crore to multi-village schemes and Rs 450 crore to retrofitting schemes, the department said.
For the current financial year, the Centre has conveyed an allocation of Rs 905.74 crore, including Rs 461.61 crore for single-village schemes and Rs 384.87 crore for multi-village schemes.
The department said approval for payments through SNA-SPARSH had been received and Rs 128.88 crore released to field divisions for clearing claims related to single-village schemes. As the amount available was lower than the outstanding claims, it was distributed proportionately among schemes to provide relief to the executing agencies.
For multi-village schemes, the department submitted a demand of Rs 427.63 crore to the Finance Department on September 15, comprising Rs 384.87 crore as the central share and Rs 42.76 crore as the UT share. The funds had not been released by the Finance Department at the time of the government’s reply.
The department also said 1,426 retrofitting schemes require a balance cost of Rs 2,354 crore and could be completed during the current financial year if the required funds were made available.
It said the issue of funding for these schemes had been taken up with the Finance Department since September 2025 and under SASCI in March 2026. In August, the Jal Shakti Department proposed that Rs 1,700 crore be provided under SASCI. No release had been made by the Finance Department as of the date of the reply.
The government also said the department had not approached banking institutions to seek temporary relief for contractors from recovery measures pending payment of their dues.
The department did not have information on whether the delayed payments had resulted in defaults on loan instalments, penal interest, possible classification of accounts as non-performing assets or recovery and auction notices issued by banks.
