TURA: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today said that the State government has set its target to complete household tap connections across all rural areas of the State by December 2022 under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Jal Jeevan Mission is a project funded by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, which envisages to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.
The programme will also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting.
The Jal Jeevan Mission will be based on a community approach to water and will include extensive Information, Education and communication as a key component of the mission. JJM looks to create a jan andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.
In a consultative meeting with DCs of all districts in presence of PHE Minister Samlin Malgniang, the Chief Minister stressed on the need to decentralize works on a mission mode and ensure that the targets are achieved in the record period as set by the State Government.
He said that the implementation of the scheme is a massive exercise and involves complete attention by the stakeholders for its successful completion. “The Government of India has given us an assurance that funding for the implementation of the scheme will not be an issue, however, we have need to ensure accountability and execution of the works as mandated by the programme,” said the Chief Minister.
By 2022, the scheme will cover 5,89,888 households in 6415 villages. This year alone, the scheme will cover 204036 spread across 11 districts of the State, while the target for 2021-22 is 2,61,226 and for the year 2022 – 2023 is 1,18,347.
Ri-Bhoi district being the ‘aspirational district’ the department has set the target of covering 55735 households within this financial year, which will ensure 100 per cent coverage for the district.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister has directed all the DCs to ensure submission of data from the village level on a real time basis, so that it is reflected on the “CM dashboard” for effective monitoring on the implementation of the scheme.
The Government has decided to implement the scheme in convergence with MGNREGS with a focus on a participatory approach from the community for its effective monitoring and phase wise completion.
The Chief Minister also reviewed the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY – G) and has directed DCs to complete the set target of 47136 houses by the end of this financial year.