Governor Bandaru Dattatraya interacted with the officials of Irrigation and Public Health Department regarding Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) at Raj Bhavan today. He emphasized to complete all centrally sponsored water supply schemes before 2022 and said that concrete efforts should be made to fulfill the goal of making water available to every household through piping during this period under the mission.He said that Prime Minister had announced the big programme of “Jal Jeevan Mission” to give functional tap-water to every household in the country by 2024.The Governor also stressed upon source sustainability and said that plan for sustainable use of surface water and groundwater should be prepared. He said that there is need to plan the reuse of grey water, or discharged water through the convergence of different schemes. He appreciated that out of 1348841 households, 807927 household connections have been provided, which were 60 per cent against the national percentage of 19.26.
To achieve the national target by 2024, JJM should follow a project approach in the state and for which; State Action Plan should also be prepared for period up to 2022.He said that a campaign should be launched to make people understand the importance of water and added that people's participation should be ensured in committees set up for water management at village level. He said that in tribal, hilly and forest areas, option of gravity and solar power-based water supply schemes with low operation and maintenance expenditure should be explored. He appreciated the on-going progress of IPH department in implementing various projects.Secretary, IPH and Rural Development Dr. R.N Batta detailed about various activities of IPH department and Jal Jeevan Mission.Engineer-in-Chief IPH Naveen Puri gave power point presentation on objectives, components, strategy, steps for programme implementation, planning and institutional mechanism under JJM in the state.Secretary to Governor Rakesh Kanwar and other senior officers of IPH department were also present on the occasion.