The third wave of Covid-19 might hamper the Bengal government’s bid to meet the target of March 2024 to complete the Jal Jeevan Mission under which rural households will get piped water.

The completion of the project is considered to be important for both the BJP and the Trinamul Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.The Centre and the state share the expenditure of the Rs 58,000 crore project (called Jal Swapno in Bengal) on a 50:50 basis. The project was initiated by the Narendra Modi government to supply water through pipelines to nearly 18 crore rural households in the country after coming back to power in 2019.

“So far, 30.11 lakh connections could be given in Bengal. The target is to give 1.77 crore connections to rural households by March 2024. The third wave of the pandemic could pose a real trouble to meet the deadline,” said a senior government official.

Although Bengal joined the scheme nine months after the nationwide launch, the state picked up the pace in the past couple of months.

“In October, November and December, we gave the highest number of connections in the country. The total number of connections has gone up to 30.11 lakh from about 25 lakh. But the progress could be hurt because of the third wave of the pandemic,” said another official.

Sources said as government offices were being run with 50 per cent employees, the pace of the project was bound to go slow.

Moreover, arranging labourers for laying pipelines and giving connections becomes difficult in the time of a pandemic because of social distancing. Now, as the project is apprehended to slow down a bit, officials said achieving the target of giving 43 lakh connections this year was going to be tough.

“The problem is that the state had joined the project nine months late as the chief minister hadn’t given the consent to the scheme initially. When the state joined the scheme, the pandemic created trouble. Now, the third wave of Covid-19 is creating trouble again,” said a source.

The scheme remained at the centre of the campaign for the 2021 Assembly polls in the state as the BJP criticised Trinamul for its failure to utilise the funds released by the Centre.

“Unlike other projects, funds for this particular scheme was never a problem. But unfortunately, the progress is being hurt because of the pandemic,” said an official.

He added that the state was adopting a series of measures to meet the deadline as the chief minister was keen on completing the project on time.