Srinagar, May 1: Jammu and Kashmir government has achieved a target of covering around 60 percent rural households under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) with a facility of functional tap water connections within premises.
As per the official figures released by Jal Jeevan Mission, Government of India the J&K UT is providing clean tap water to over 11.23 lakh rural households out of a total 18.67 lakh under JJM. The Government of India has appreciated the JJM for achieving the 60 percent target in a short span of time since the launch of JJM flagship programme in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a flagship program of the Government of India was launched on August 15 of 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The flagship programme has been launched with an objective to provide 100 percent Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) at the rate of 55 LPCD as per BIS 10500 standard by 2024 with central assistance of 90:10 for J&K. As per the official figures, the J&K government has a target to provide FHTC to around 18.67 lakh rural households in Jammu and Kashmir out of 5.75 (30.81%) lakh rural households found with functional tap water connections as on August 15 of 2019.
As per the survey conducted by the GoI, around 5.47 lakh rural households have been covered with FHTC under JJM by the Jammu and Kashmir Government. With this, the number of rural households with functional tap water connections has increased from 5.75 lakh in 2019 to 11.23 lakh (60.13%). Talking to Greater Kashmir Mission Director JJM J&K, Dr G N Itoo told Greater Kashmir that they are hopeful to cover all the rural households with functional tap water connection in Jammu and Kashmir under JJM, as per the set guidelines. “Under JJM we follow a cluster level approach wherein a minimum of 20 rural uncovered households are covered with functional tap water connection under JJM,” Dr. Itoo told Greater Kashmir.
He said the other areas are covered under different schemes which are executed out of Capex budget, NABARD and National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). “As per the guidelines we are supposed to cover all the uncovered rural households with functional tap water connections by the end of this year and we are hopeful that we will meet the target and each household will have its tap water facility by 2023 ending or in early 2024,” he said.
The objective of the JJM flagship programme is to develop in-village piped water supply infrastructure to provide tap-water connection to every rural household.
Under JJM, the government will develop reliable drinking water sources and augment all existing sources to provide long-term sustainability of the water supply system and also use technological interventions for removal of contaminants where water quality remains an issue.