SHILLONG, June 24: The much-vaunted project, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is taking longer strides insofar as its implementation is concerned nearing 60 per cent completion in the state, even as the state government is hopeful that it will not miss the deadline in achieving the project’s goals.
“We hope to complete it as per the schedule. Everything is going in line, we should be touching almost 60 per cent completion,” said PHE Minister Marcuise Marak on Saturday.
Marak said that a review meeting will held on Monday which will deliberate over the progress, obstacles, besides rate of completion in details.
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is a flagship programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in August 2019 which aims to provide all rural households with tap water supply in adequate quantity & of prescribed quality by 2024.
Albeit more than 50 per cent of households in Meghalaya have been provided tap water connections under the JJM since its launch, the issue pertaining to dearth of water continues to plague the state capital with no immediate solution in sight.
The situation is so grim that some have even knocked on the doors of the High Court of Meghalaya with a hope for a solution to the water woes.
One such petitioner had complained that in the absence of regular supply of water to some areas, residents there are at the mercy of private water-tankers, who reportedly charge exorbitantly despite obtaining water free from the nearby rivers.
Talking about the water woes in the state, the PHE Minister said, “Monsoon was delayed and only now we have started getting rains. Obviously we will have scarcity of water in some place but we are trying our best to meet the challenges so things will be settled gradually”.
Meanwhile, the dashboard of Jal Jeevan Mission states that around 3.32 lakh households (51.37%) have been provided with tap water connection till date.
According to the dashboard, 75.45% of the households in East Garo Hills have been provided with tap water connection, while the percentage is a mere 37.31% in East Khasi Hills.
It may be mentioned that in April, the Ministry of Jal Shakti had sanctioned an additional grant-in-aid of Rs 299.24 crore to Meghalaya for the third straight year for providing functional household tap connections under the JJM.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, on the other hand, had said that the state government has set an ambitious target of providing tap water connections to all 6.3 lakh households by April 2024.
