Jammu: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today impressed upon the engineers of Jal Shakti Department to come up with tangible results regarding implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Advisor was speaking in a meeting called to discuss the progress achieved under the Mission till date.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary Jal Shakti Department, M Raju; MD, JJM, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah; Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers of the department besides other officers and officials associated with the Mission.
Out station based officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing from their respective districts.
While reviewing the tendering and allotment of works under the Mission, Advisor Bhatnagar urged upon the Executing agencies to take up all the remaining works in hand in this working season only. He enjoined upon them to complete the mission target before the onset of winter season along with integration of all the components. He urged them to prioritize the work so that best outcomes are achieved in this working season.
Advisor Bhatnagar also took note of the tendering process of all the works to be done under this national mission. He stressed on the fact that no reservation would be acceptable of any sort for not meeting the renewed deadline fixed today. He maintained that every sort of liberation has been extended to the executing agencies for meeting the targets and now it is time to start delivering as there is no scope of any laxity.
The Advisor further exhorted upon the officers to maintain the quality of all the works and certify at the end about proper working of each connection provided to the households. He underscored that the PM Office is itself keenly monitoring this aspect of the mission and it has to be seriously taken care of. He also asked them to look into incentivizing works that are completed earlier.
The Commissioner Jal Shakti Department gave the overall scenario of the Mission throughout J&K. He revealed that all the guidelines and directions from time to time have been implemented. He informed the chair that his office is acting as a facilitator in every sense for the successful culmination of this prestigious mission. He provided the timeline of different activities taken up under this mission till date.
The MD, JJM informed the Advisor that there are few grey areas that need attention. He revealed that besides augmentation of the manpower in the JJM Cells at both Srinagar and Jammu, the process of evaluation of bids needs to be accelerated. He assured that once the works are allotted the same would be ensured to be completed within their specific deadlines.
The Advisor asked the concerned Chief Engineers to hire staff through outsourcing if necessary as there is no dearth of funds under the mission. He reminded them that it is a rare opportunity for all of them to write their names in golden letters. He asked them to own this mission and its objectives as it is a one off opportunity for all of them to provide safe drinking water to the whole population, something that could only be dreamed of a few years ago.
The Advisor was informed that under the mission 485680 tap water connections have been provided to households till date and more 774044 connections are being provided to cover the whole population. It was said that each school, health and Anganwadi centre has already been provided a tap water connection under this mission.
It was further revealed that in order to achieve the targets of this mission some 1156 bore wells/ tube wells, 509 overhead tanks, 1595 filtration plants, 7946 service reservoirs, and 86017 kms length of pipes besides other infrastructure is proposed under this mission. It was also revealed that this mission is a transformational one with abundant funding provided to the J&K.
Pertinent to mention here that the mission aims at providing safe drinking water connection to each of the rural households. J&K proposed to complete around 3053 water supply schemes under this mission with a whopping cost of around Rs 11000 crores under Jal Jeevan Mission in the UT.
