Abid Rasheed reviews progress of Jal Jeevan Mission in Kashmir

Srinagar, Jul 12: Mission Director, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah Monday chaired a meeting of officers of Jal Shakti Department to review the progress with respect to the piped drinking water to every rural household under JJM Scheme.
The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer Jal Shakti Department Kashmir, Superintending Engineers of all the districts of Kashmir division, all PHE Executive Engineers and other concerned.
The Mission Director held a detailed review of district and division-wise implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission and status of other works being executed by Jal Shakti Department (PHE) Kashmir under JJM Scheme.
At the outset, Chief Engineer Jal Shakti Kashmir, Er Iftikhar Ahmad Wani presented the progress on implementation of the scheme in Kashmir valley.
The meeting was informed that of 67 works allotted, the work on 35 have been started in three districts of Shopian, Pulwama and Bandipora.
The meeting discussed the progress with respect to providing of remaining tap connections to schools and Anganwadi centers of Kashmir division.
On the occasion, Mission Director, Dr Abid Rasheed implored upon the officers to put in their best possible efforts and synergize coordination among different wings to achieve the set target of 100 percent piped water within given timelines.
The meeting in detail discussed the status of district-wise coverage of Health Institutions and GP buildings, progress under water quality testing during 2021-22, discharge and water quality parameters, quality assessment of Village Action Plans (VAPs) and Panchayat Pani Samitis. Besides, it also discussed the current status of NABL Accreditation of laboratories and it was given out that an accreditation application has been filed for 11 more labs in Kashmir division.
It also discussed the status of procurement of various services under JJM which include implementation of supply agencies, concurrent auditors, data entry operators, third party monitoring agency and project development and management consultancies (PDMC).
The meeting was informed that out of 9500 schools, 9254 (93%) schools have been covered while as of 12106 Anganwadis, 10696 Anganwadis have been covered (92%) and the remaining would be covered within a given time limit.
Speaking on the occasion, Mission Director asked all the concerned to ensure total implementation of Chief Secretary’s instructions in the given timelines to achieve the set targets prior to the national endeavor.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is a key scheme of Government of India with a goal to provide piped potable water to every rural household within prescribed quantity and quality standards by December 2024.
In this regard, J&K is working to achieve 100 percent Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to its 18.16 lakh rural households by September 2022.
By the end of financial year 2020-21, the department had provided 9.98 Lakh FHTCs and is planning to provide 4.90 Lakh FHTCs during the current fiscal year. The remaining 3.28 FHTCs have been planned to be provided next year in order to achieve the full saturation of FHTCs to all households.