SHILLONG, March 9: The Meghalaya government has achieved 34.59 per cent of its March 2021 target of providing Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to every rural household in the state under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), PHE Minister Renikton L Tongkhar told the House here on Tuesday.
Replying to a question raised by Nongpoh MLA, Mayralborn Syiem, during the Question Hour of the state Assembly Budget session, Tongkhar informed that the implementation of the project in few of the districts is satisfactory. “But there are few districts where the project implementation is very slow. I am hopeful that it will pick up in the coming months,” the PHE minister admitted while replying to the supplementary question by the Nongpoh MLA.
He informed that the implementation of the JJM in the state had been affected due to the shortage of supply of GI pipes.
According to him, the PHE department had been procuring GI pipes directly from the NE Zone manufacturing unit at Byrnihat.
The PHE minister said that the Byrnihat unit is unable to meet the demand for GI pipes of the state for implementation of JJM. “We expect the implementation of the Mission to pick up again as the government has decided to allow the department to purchase pipes from any manufacturing unit,” the minister informed. Tongkhar further said that the Jal Shakti Ministry has sanctioned a total amount of Rs 1190.64 crore for the implementation of JJM in Meghalaya.
Replying to a supplementary question raised by Nongpoh MLA with regard to the eight villages which were de-notified as census town by the KHADC recently, the PHE minister said that the government will examine the matter and decide if these villages can be included to avail the benefits of the central programme.