Patna: Bihar’s flagship “Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal” scheme, a cornerstone of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s ambitious Saat Nischay programme, has run into administrative friction, with the state’s public health engineering minister admitting that divided oversight is affecting its implementation on the ground.
Responding to concerns raised in the legislative council, the public health engineering department (PHED) minister, Sanjay Kumar Singh, said a formal request has been made to bring the entire tap water project under a single department. At present, responsibilities are split between the PHED and the Panchayati Raj department, headed by Deepak Prakash Kushwaha.
The issue surfaced during a discussion initiated by CPI-ML MLC Shashi Yadav, who questioned the condition of the “tap water for every home” scheme in several areas. Other members, including Sanjeev Singh and Dinesh Prasad Singh, echoed concerns about malfunctioning infrastructure and inconsistent supply.
Singh told the House that assigning responsibility to two separate departments was hindering smooth operation. “A request has been made to bring the scheme completely under the jurisdiction of a single department,” he said.
He acknowledged irregularities in earlier phases of the project, when implementation at the village level was overseen by local heads. In several cases, pipes had been damaged and were now being replaced, he added. An inquiry has also been initiated after reports that a tap water tank was installed in a cremation ground, rendering it unusable for villagers.
Under the Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Yojana Nishchay, four related schemes are being implemented to ensure the supply of tap water to households in both rural and urban Bihar. According to data from September 2025, clean drinking water is being supplied to 114,163 rural wards and 205 urban wards across the state.
In May 2025, a survey conducted by the Development Management Institute in Gaya and Muzaffarpur found that more than 99% of beneficiaries rated the water supplied to their homes as clean and suitable for drinking.
Despite these findings, legislators said gaps in coordination and maintenance were undermining the scheme’s effectiveness in some regions. The minister maintained that streamlining administrative control would improve accountability and ensure more consistent service delivery.
