Tongkhar reviews JJM implementation, assures maximum households to be covered by Dec

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 12, 2022

Minister in-charge Public Health Engineering (PHE) Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar on Tuesday reviewed the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Meghalaya.

Speaking to reporters, Tongkhar said that the target to complete the mission is December, this year but as of today, the state has just crossed 40% of providing tap water connection to rural households.

“We have not withdrawn from the race but as I told you that the number of households have also increased. That is one of the reasons that we may not be able to reach 100% but we will try our best to achieve the maximum by the end of December,” he said.

“We will be doing wonders in these 3 months’ time since it is the working season. We can expect maximum work to be completed in these 3 months’ time,” he added.

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Tongkhar informed that the number of targeted households has increased from 5.89 households to 6.30 lakh households and so far, there are over 1400 villages, which have achieved 100% completion.

He said Rs 1,600 crore has already been spent for the implementation of the JJM in the state.

Tongkhar said even though the engineers and officers of the department have given their best efforts, there is always scope to do better.

“During the review meeting, we have requested all the engineers and officers to speak out and give suggestions to further improve the achievement of the department in the JJM implementation. The discussion was a fruitful one and a solution was offered to problems related to the delay in making payment to the contractors,” he said.

He also stressed the need for strong cooperation from the grass root level and better coordination between the department and the contractors for completion of the mission.

The minister also informed that the engineers have also expressed concern over the delay to submit the inspection report by the third party. “We have asked the chief engineer to meet the third party agency to understand the problem they are facing and we expect this also will be resolved at the earliest.”

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On allegations of corruption, Tongkhar however said, “If someone expects perfection in the ongoing work it may not be possible.”

Further, the minister informed that based on the state government’s request, the ministry concerned has allowed the JJM to be extended to 9 census towns in the state and due to this the number of households have increased to 6.30 lakh.