Tirupati, March 5 : Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has said that the state will achieve 100 per cent tap water connections in villages by 2024. He said this while addressing a regional conference of Southern states on Jal Jeevan Mission, organised at Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore and presided by on Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Saturday. Reddy said the main demand of Andhra Pradesh was that it should be given a 90:10 ratio of funding on par with North Eastern states by the Jal Jeevan mission. The Minister said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had written letters in this connection to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also Jal Shakti Minister. However, he said most water programs are based on ground water sources to the extent of 40 LPCD and only the capacities hiked to 55 LPCD for nearly 55 percent of households. Reddy said of the 95.16 lakh households in the state nearly 50.26 lakh households were provided tap water connections. He said that Andhra Pradesh was poised to provide 100 percent household tap water connections in all the villages by 2024 for which the government had sanctioned Rs 18,932 crore and also an additional fund of Rs 8,690 crore. The Minister said Andhra Pradesh was ready to share 50 percent of cost as state share in ground water works. He said additional fund sanction was needed to address the problems of water pollution caused by aqua sector in three districts of East & West Godavari and Krishna and fluoride impact in drinking water in Guntur, Prakasam and Chittoor districts. Reddy said the government had already laid out program to provide tap water connections to the remaining 44 Lakh households by 2024 and explained that state bifurcation, Covid-19 situation and financial crisis had led to delay. The Minister said nearly 12 lakh tap water connections would be completed during the current financial year and planned for completion of the remaining by the next financial year. He said a total amount of Rs 1,000 crore was earmarked on tap water connections, and Rs 455.46 crore had already been spent and another Rs 544.54 crore will be utilised by March 31. XC VV CS1740