Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan has raised serious concerns over the condition of the Jal Jeevan Mission in Assam, saying that the project has failed to deliver on its promises and has instead created new problems for the people as well as contractors. His remarks come at a time when public frustration is rising across several districts of the state.
The Jal Jeevan Mission was announced as an important initiative that would provide clean drinking water to every household. The government had spent thousands of crores of rupees on the project, and people were hoping that this investment would finally give them a stable and safe water supply. But today, for many families, this promise seems far from reality. In many places, residents say that their taps have remained dry for weeks and months. Instead of getting water from their pipelines, people are going back to hand pumps, wells, and even nearby streams for their daily needs.
In several villages, locals say they must stand in long queues with buckets early in the morning, hoping to collect a small amount of water. They say that this struggle has now become a normal part of their life, even though the Jal Jeevan Mission was launched to remove such hardships. Many families feel let down, as they were expecting a big improvement in their lives through this project. 
There are also many areas where the Jal Jeevan Mission work has not even started. Villagers say that pipelines have not been installed and construction has not taken place. In some regions, only the foundation stones have been laid, and nothing has moved beyond that. This has left people confused and frustrated, as they feel that the project has been announced many times but real work is missing on the ground.
Contractors involved in the project are also facing a difficult situation. Many of them said they used their own money and took loans to start the work, expecting that the government would release the payments on time. But according to several contractors, the funds have not been released, leaving them in financial trouble. Some contractors have shut down their operations because they could not repay what they borrowed. A few tragic incidents have also been reported where contractors, unable to bear the pressure of debt, took their own lives. These incidents have raised serious questions about the financial management of the scheme.
With so many problems coming to light, people are now asking a basic question: If thousands of crores were spent on the Jal Jeevan Mission, why are the taps still empty? Why are contractors unpaid? And why is the project still incomplete in so many places? Jagadish Bhuyan and many others have demanded a proper and transparent investigation to find out what went wrong and where the money actually went.
