Centre wants J-K to speed up work for providing piped water to households under Jal Jeevan Mission

Ravi S Singh

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 1

Showing urgency, the Centre has weighed in with UT of Jammu and Kashmir for speedy completion of the project to provide every rural household with piped water under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).

Although the UT administration has assured to complete the project by 2022, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry has put its implementation under the microscope. The national deadline for the project is 2024.

Sources in the Ministry said all the districts in Jammu and Kashmir have been divided for attainment of complete saturation of the project in three phases.

Seven districts – Ganderbal, Srinagar Shopian, Pulwama, Poonch, Reasi and Samba – had been chosen for the first phase.

Doda, Udhampur, Kathua, Jammu, Kulgam, Bandipora and Budgam will attain the saturation level in Phase-2, while Ramban, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Anantnag, Baramula and Kupwara will be taken up in the last phase.

The JJM, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of Red Fort during Independence Day celebrations last year, is a Centrally-sponsored scheme with states chipping in with matching contribution of funds. Its objective is to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to each rural household of the country by 2024.

The goal is to improve the lives and ensure “ease of living” of citizens by ensuring “equity and inclusiveness”, so that none is deprived of basic amenities

The UT has informed the Ministry that out of more than a total of 18 lakh households, nearly eight lakh had tap connections till May, 2020.

It plans to provide remaining more than 10 lakh tap connections by March, 2022.

Jammu and Kashmir has potential to provide about nine lakh tap connections by retro-fitting and augmentation of existing piped water supply schemes in 6500 villages.

The JJM is a departure from various social sector programmes aiming for sector specific reforms. The focus of this big-ticket reform is service delivery for rural areas, rather than infrastructure creation.

Its aims to provide potable water in adequate quantity (at the rate of 55 litre per person per day) and of prescribed quality to rural households on regular and long-term basis.