Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam achieves 50 per cent of its target

GUWAHATI: The Public Health Engineering Department Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah, today announced that 50% of the work related to the Jal Jeevan Mission in this state has already been completed. He said this while chairing an orientation meeting for the orientation of newly recruited Class III and Class IV employees of the Public Health Engineering Department at Sri Sri Madhavedeva International Auditorium in Guwahati on Thursday.

Addressing the gathering Jayanta Mallabaruah expressed confidence to provide drinking water to each and every household by 2024. “A total number of 34,01,097 households out of 67,95,311 in Assam now have access to potable drinking water. The mission is relentlessly working to complete its target in Assam,” said the minister.

He also said that Assam had struggled with the progress of Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) in the beginning, but over the period of last couple of years, the state has made tremendous progress. He also mentioned that the state has also shown considerable progress in setting benchmarks including forming Village Water & Sanitation Committees, Training various stakeholders, Villages where human resources are identified and skilled for O&M, etc.

The minister also expressed his gratitude towards the Prime Minister, stating that Narendra Modi has successfully transformed JJM into a Jan Andolan for water in the country and also thanked Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for their constant guidance and support throughout the implementation phase over Twitter. Assam has seen a massive growth in the number of household water connections in the past few years. From a mere 1.64% to a staggering 50.05%, the number has increased multifold since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019.

Speaking to the newly recruited 239 Class III and Class IV employees of the department, he said that since the recruitment is carried out on the basis of merit, they will work with utmost dedication and enthusiasm towards achieving better results for the department and support the pace maintained in the progress achieved by Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam till date.

The meeting was attended by the Additional Chief Secretary, PHED, Syedain Abbasi; Special Secretary PHED; Diganta Kumar Baruah; Chief Engineer (Water), PHED, Dibyajyoti Duwarah, Chief Engineer (Sanitation), PHED, B.M. Roy and other officials of the department.

Also Read: Clean water for all: Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam

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