BJP misused water scheme in bid to win polls: Dy CM

Shimla: Himachal deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri on Wednesday said the previous government misused the Jal Jeevan Mission in a failed bid to stay in office. In response to a joint question by MLAs Kewal Singh Pathania and Sudhir Sharma, Agnihotri said the previous regime distributed pipes in the last four months of its rule just to grab power. He said pipes bought under Jal Jeevan Mission were made a weapon to gain power and, at some places, these were used to hoist flags and set up fences. “Not only this, cots were also made out of these pipes,” he said.Agnihotri said in the last five years, the state’s jal shakti department bought pipes worth Rs 2,000 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission. GI pipes worth Rs 1,709 crore were purchased. Also, DI pipes and HDPI pipes were also purchased from 13 companies.On a demand by Congress MLAs to bring a white paper on Jal Jeevan Mission, Agnihotri said the biggest white paper was the victory of Congress from the assembly constituency of former jal shakti minister. He said Jal Jeevan Mission was to end in 2024, but to take advantage of it in the assembly elections, it was ended two years earlier.To a joint question by MLAs Sukhram Chaudhary and Randhir Sharma regarding the Jal Jeevan Mission, Agnihotri said 9,22,795 tap connections had been installed till March 13 and 36,463 were pending. He said taps might have been installed, but sources of water had not been expanded.