Under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the government aims to provide safe drinking water through individual household tap connections to all households in rural parts by 2024.
According to the Jal Shakti department of J&K, the Government decided to advance the target to September, 2022 instead of 2024 for ensuring water security to its population.
The guidelines of the mission also stipulates 5% community contribution towards in-village piped water supply infrastructure through cash, labour, material etc besides O&M of the schemes by PRIs.
On Friday (August 12), the government informed that a total of 10.63 lac out of 18.35 lac rural households already have been connected with piped tap water connections. In order to ensure provision of Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to each household, the government has planned creation of 3100 new or augmentation of already present water supply schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission.
The government also informed that all these works have been tendered out and more than 1100 works have been allotted to the contractors for their timely completion.
These works, the government said, include creation of drinking water infrastructure of about Rs 10000 crores. This consists of about 1300 Tube-wells/Dug-wells, 540 Over Head Tanks, 470 Sand Filtration Plants, and 4300 works of laying pipe networks for taking water to the households without a functional tap water connection.
The Chief Secretary of J&K has time and again stressed completion of the mission within the stipulated time frame and in this regard he held a number of meetings. The latest being on August 12 he directed the concerned officials to expedite the tendering and evaluation processes after Administrative Approval and Technical Sanction is granted by the competent authorities, besides ensuring allotment of works by the fixed deadlines.
He also impressed upon the officers to maintain the highest level of transparency and accountability in the implementation process and meet the timelines targeted for completion of various tasks.
There is need for regular inspections for effective implementation of JJM and chanellising all the available human resources in a proper and optimum manner for accomplishment of the tasks within the stipulated time frame. While there is hope that the mission will be completed within the timelines, the government must ensure the quality of the portable water to every household. All the concerned must focus and put in best effort to make the mission a success given it is aimed to ease the lives of all.
