About half of households still waiting to get fresh tap water connections
Vikas Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 10: Though, the Centre Government has fixed the deadline for accomplishing the entire projects under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in entire country by 2024, but still there are many States, Union Territories as well as the districts, which are lagging behind the best performers in this mission.
Jammu as well as Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory are among the worst performing districts under this Mission.
The performance of both these districts is not up to the mark as nearly half of the households are still waiting to get fresh tap water connections.
In the UT, some districts are also among the best performers in the entire country. These districts are the Srinagar and Ganderbal, which have achieved 100% tap water supply under this mission.
In addition to these districts, some other districts, which are nearby to get accomplished under this project is Reasi district, where out of 77,477 registered households 88% have got fresh tap water connections, while in Pulwama district out of 78,268 registered households 86% have got fresh water tap connections.
Udhampur district, out of 99,928 registered households only 54.45 % households have got fresh water connections, while in Jammu district which is lagging behind the districts of Jammu and Kashmir, out of 1,84,713 households just 54% have been able to get the fresh tap water connections, while nearly half of the registered households are still waiting to get the fresh tap water connections.
Pertinent to mention here that the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a flagship program of the Government of India, which was launched by PM Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019. The program is a crucial step towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Under the project it is expected to provide a functional water connection in every household by 2024.
Under the mission, some States and Union Territories have already achieved 100% tap water supply to its households included Goa, A & N Islands, Puducherry, D&NH and D&D, Haryana, Punjab, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat got certified under the Jal Jeevan Mission portray a picture of resilience and governance.
“It is very surprising, that when the deadline fixed to complete this mission in Jammu is coming closer, the PHE department is still boasting about to complete the project on time, while for most of the time they never bothered about meet the deadline for completing the project,” said Manoj Verma, a resident of Janipur locality.
On the issue, why the Jammu district is lagging behind all other districts in J&K UT, Chief Engineer PHE, Hamesh Manchanda told the Excelsior, “It’s not a big issue.”
“The people in Jammu are getting water supplied through the tube wells and where we supply water through the tube wells, it is very difficult to provide them fresh water through the taps, so the people in Jammu are still waiting to get the fresh tap water connections as compared to the people in other areas of UT,” he maintained.
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