Expedite Jal Jeevan Mission Implementation by Empowering DCs: Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday held a video conference with Deputy Commissioners of all districts to review the implementation status of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the State. MD, National Jal Jeevan Mission and Additional Secretary, GOI, Jal Shakti Department Bharat Lal was also present during the VC and he gave a presentation on Assam's performance in the scheme.

The Chief Minister directed PHED and JJM, Assam to aggressively pursue the target of providing piped water to people in 800 tea gardens of the State at the earliest to achieve the total target of 22 lakh retrofitting under the Mission in the villages with existing piped water connections.

He also directed to decentralize the Mission by empowering the DCs to allot works to contactors, complete projects and release payments at the district level for minimizing delays and expediting works. Also instruction was issued to release funds for IEC and awareness works to the districts, stated a release.

Instructing DCs to review the status of implementation of the scheme at least once per week, the Chief Minister directed to delegate one ADC in each district monitor the project constantly. He also strictly directed JJM to achieve the target of setting up 200 NABL approved water testing labs mandated by the scheme at the district and sub-division levels within one month.

Dwelling on dearth of technical manpower and importance of engaging young engineers, the Chief Minister asked JJM, Assam to engage 5 assistant engineers in each division to speed up work and conduct walk-in interviews to hire engineers on merit basis at the earliest.

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