While taking part in the discussion on motion of thanks to Lt Governor’s to the Assembly, several legislators have raised serious concerns about Jal Jeevan Mission demanding that a House committee be set up to investigate the matter. The issue was raised by NC MLA for Beerwah Dr M Shafi Wani and when the Jal Shakti Minister Javed Rana came up with statistics regarding schemes that have been approved and completed in Wani’s constituency, the legislator expressed dissatisfaction. He was joined by other legislators including Congress MLA Nizamuddin Bhat, NC’s Ali Mohammad Dar, AAP’s Mehraj Malik, BJP’s Baldev Raj and Congress’ Legislative Party leader G A Mir, who raised supplementary questions, accusing the government of “inefficiency and mismanagement” in implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission. Congress leader G A Mir even termed the Jal Jeevan Mission a “major scam” in Jammu and Kashmir and insisted on a thorough probe.
The legislators are right in pointing out that something is massively wrong with this Mission and there are areas, particularly in rural Jammu and Kashmir which don’t get portable water. The dry spell, which fortunately has ended, has played havoc with water supply as springs and rivers in Kashmir had started running dry. Not only in the countryside, but even in the capital city Srinagar people of several areas are faced with acute shortage of drinking water. And what caps their miseries is that the promises made by authorities to them have failed to bring about any change on the ground.
Another serious issue that confronts the populace of J&K is that despite facilitating water supply to a sizeable portion of the population, least attention is being paid to the quality of water provided to the people for consumption. The sources of water are cleansed rarely; the pipes usually made of iron gather rust with the passage of time and water which is pumped through them gets polluted with the presence of this rust which only adds to the contamination of the drinking water that adversely tells upon the health of its users. In several areas, water is supplies to people direct from the source without any filtration thus putting peoples’ health on risk.
Government must make sure that public must be fed with pure and non-polluted water, at least for drinking purposes. The perennial springs that dot whole of the UT in general and Kashmir valley in particular, must be harnessed to the maximum extent so that the pure water they gush out, reach to the people without getting adulterated due to unclean pipes and other means of supply. Reservoirs constructed for storage of drinking water must be disinfected every time fresh water is pumped into them. Chlorination of water will also improve the quality of water. And as demanded by the legislators, a thorough probe should be held to find the irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission.