Jal Jeevan Mission in J&K to see completion by June: Official

Jammu, Feb 8 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday said the central flagship programme Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has achieved substantial progress in the Union Territory and is set to be completed by June this year.

The information was given at a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta who conducted a virtual tour of the works taken up under JJM and interacted with public and officials of the department for first hand appraisal of the progress made in the mission so far, an official spokesman said.

Principal Secretary Jal Shakti Department, Shaleen Kabra, informed the meeting that the mission is under implementation from 2019 and has achieved substantial progress till now.

“All rural institutions like schools, Anganwadi centres and health institutions have been provided piped water under this mission. Every remaining rural household would get the tap water connection under this mission by June this year as most of the targets would be completed by then,” he said.

The spokesman said the meeting was informed that of 6,774 works, 6,712 has been tendered, and 3,696 works stands allotted till date.

1,893 works are currently under progress and 284 works are completed in the UT.

All the works of the JJM would be allotted till March this year, Kabra said, adding that in order to enhance the transparency and monitoring of the works, NGOs have been empanelled as Implementation Support Agencies (ISAs).

“These ISAs are going to work across villages and help in capacity building of Gram panchayats, Pani Samities and perform other support activities as well,” he said.

The Chief Secretary asked the officers about the progress of the mission and asked them to meet the deadlines without any fail.

He also laid stress on using techniques like Critical Path Method (CPM) and Resource Management System for better control and understanding of the priority areas and discerning the way forward to complete each work on time.

Mehta instructed the officers to carry out the capacity building of the field workers so that the mission worth Rs 11,000 Crore is implemented efficiently.

He maintained that such missions provide golden opportunities to departments to enhance their efficiency in terms of capacity of their employees and addressing the requirements of manpower as well.

The Chief Secretary also asked about the pace of water testing under JJM and the remedial measures taken in case of poor quality of water found anywhere.