STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: In a major boost to Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in J&K, the Centre has approved new 102 Water Supply Schemes worth Rs 476.71 crore for coverage of additional 54752 rural households in the UT for which the provision for Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) had not been planned at the start of the mission.
The identification of these areas and households was done, by the public, during various public outreach programmes like ‘Back to village’, Block Divas, JJM Fortnight, Gram Sabhas and JJM awareness camps conducted by the Department, where the public had raised the demands for inclusion of these left out areas in the Jal Jeevan Mission.
With the approval of these new 102 schemes by the Centre, it shall be ensured that no household is left without a tap connection within its premises.
The UT administration has thanked the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, for timely approval of the new schemes for coverage of additional 54752 households.
Additional Chief Secretary, Jal Shakti, Shaleen Kabra, has impressed upon the engineers to expedite execution of these schemes to meet the agreed timelines for completion of the Mission. He further emphasized upon the field functionaries to maintain highest degree of transparency, accountability and accessibility to the general public for effective implementation of the mission.
It may be recalled that like other States/ UTs of the country, Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in J&K with the involvement of various stakeholders like Central Government’s Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Jal Shakti Department, J&K, District Administrations and the local communities for providing access to safe and adequate drinking water supply facility through tap connections within the premises of rural households. Pani Samitis representing the local communities are playing a very critical role in the implementation of the Mission by partnering with the Department in planning, implementation and monitoring of the Mission activities.
The Department has been continuously reviewing its planning and implementation for achieving the 100% coverage with FHTCs in the most economic, transparent and technically feasible manner. As on date, J&K has achieved more than 75% coverage of tap water connections, thereby entering into the ‘High Achievers’ category at the National Level. The FHTCs being provided are reported on the IMIS portal of JJM with Aadhar linkage of the beneficiaries.
So far, about 3300 schemes have been planned under Jal Jeevan Mission at an estimated cost of Rs. 12975.00 crore which are at different stages of execution. The contracts of more than 98% works under these schemes have been awarded through e-tendering in a transparent manner and out of which around 87% works have been started on ground. The allotments orders issued have been placed on the websites of the respective PHE Directorates in both the provinces.
In this regard, the UT has already covered more than 1000 villages, among which are some of the remotest areas like Batlan, Taraiyan and Chanbra villages in Sub Division Tangdar of District Kupwara which are located near the LoC and received piped water for the first time. In these villages people would fetch water from springs and nearby streams by travelling long distances. Similarly, Nilfan village with about 285 households got 100% tap water connectivity for the first time and the women and children of the area got relieved of the drudgery of fetching water by travelling long distances on hill slopes.
By completing and commissioning of Water Supply schemes Rampura and Sujwan at an estimated cost of Rs. 6.67 crore, in district Samba, about 1100 households have been benefited by getting Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) within the premises. The people of these villages were mostly using the water from shallow hand pumps which were quality affected and through the newly commissioned schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission, deep tube wells have been drilled and required storages created for supplying the water of adequate quantity and prescribed quality as per BIS 10500, regularly.
In order to ensure the transparency in work done and households covered, the process of Har Ghar Jal Certification by the Gram Panachayats has been put in place where the villages reported as Har Ghar Jal by the PHE Department are subsequently certified through a Special Gram Sabha resolution. This not only creates the awareness about provision of tap water connectivity in the village but also promotes community ownership.