Sep 7: Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat held a discussion with Chief Minister of Sikkim, Shri Prem Singh Tamang regarding the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the State through video conferencing today. Secretary, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Addl. Secretary & Mission Director, National Jal Jeevan Mission, and other officials of the Ministry also attended the meeting. From Sikkim, Minister of PWD, Chief Secretary, and other senior officers took part in the meeting.
Union Government’s flagship programme, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is under implementation in partnership with States with aim to provide tap connection to every rural household of the country by 2024. The objective of the Mission is universal coverage i.e. every family in the village gets tap water connection in their households. Sikkim is planning 100% coverage by 2022 to accomplish the target of providing tap connection to every rural household of the State.
The Union Minister had a detailed discussion on the progress of the mission in the State with the Chief Minister. Emphasizing the importance of the transformational mission, the central Minister emphasized on retrofitting and augmentation of existing water supply schemes. In the State, all 411 villages have piped water supply schemes, but 70,525 (67%) homes have tap connections out of 1.05 lakh households. The Union Minister urged the Chief Minister to take up the work a campaign mode so that remaining households belonging to poor & marginalized sections of the society could be provided with tap connections at earliest.
Shri Shekhawat assured of the commitment of Union Government to provide all assistance to the State to achieve this goal. For Jal Jeevan Mission, funds are provided by Government of India based on the output in terms of tap connections provided and the utilization of available central and matching state share.
Sikkim plans to provide tap connections in 16,879 households during 2020-21. In 2020-21, ₹ 31.36 Crore have been allocated to the State. State is eligible for additional fund based on physical and financial performance. Sikkim has been allocated ₹ 42 Crore under 15th Finance Commission Grants to rural local bodies and 50% of it is to be used for water supply and sanitation. Central minister urged the Chief Minister to plan for utilizing this fund for rural water supply, grey-water treatment and re-use and most importantly for ensuring long-term operation and maintenance of water supply schemes.
Union Minister further emphasized on preparation of village action plans as well as constitution of Village Water & Sanitation Committee/ Paani Samiti as a sub-committee of Gram Panchayat with minimum 50% of women members, responsible for planning, designing, implementing and operating & maintaining of in-village water supply infrastructure. All villages have to prepare Village Action Plan (VAP) which essentially will comprise of development/ augmentation of drinking water sources, water supply, grey-water management and operation and maintenance component. It was urged to take up IEC campaign to make Jal Jeevan Mission, truly a people’s movement.
Under Jal Jeevan Mission, priority is being given on water quality surveillance through active participation of the local community. 5 persons especially women are being trained in every village to use the Field Test Kits to test the quality of water being provided in the rural areas. Every source needs to be tested once every year for physical and chemical parameters and twice for bacteriological contamination. The State was also advised to complete the accreditation of State and district laboratories and also to open those for public so that people can test the quality of water supplied at very nominal rate. Minister of Jal Shakti mentioned that by undertaking the initiatives under JJM, Sikkim can provide leadership in utility-oriented rural water supply approach.
Citing about various challenges in the State like difficult terrain, thin population, poor connectivity and the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, the Chief Minister of Sikkim mentioned that he will review the progress of the Jal Jeevan Mission regularly. He assured of expeditious implementation of the mission in the State so as to achieve the target of providing household tap connections in rural areas in time-bound manner.
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