Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today chaired a meeting to review the various activities of Jal Shakti Department as well as the progress of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Jammu and Kashmir at Civil Secretariat here.Secretary Jal Shakti, M Raju; Chief Engineer PHE, Kashmir, Chief Engineer, I&FC, Kashmir, Executive Engineers of all districts and other concerned officials attended the meeting through video conferencing while as Chief Engineer, PHE Jammu, Chief Engineer, I&FC Jammu and other officers of the concerned departments participated in the meeting in person.During the meeting, Advisor Bhatnagar took detailed review of the department focusing on completion of different schemes under PMDP, Centrally Sponsored Schemes, physical targets achieved, utilisation of money as well as the implementation of JJM in J&K.The Advisor also reviewed the arrangements made by the Jal Shakti department for maintaining continuous supply of water during the ongoing winters.Advisor Bhatnagar called upon the officials to increase their visibility on ground and take proactive initiatives like having a 24/7 complaint redressal system to address the problems of general public during these critical times.He emphasized upon the officers to focus on delivery, outcome and effective grievances redressal mechanism so that people do not face any kind of inconvenience.The Advisor directed the officers to formulate the Village Action Plans (VAP) as per the aspirations of the people in consultation with the representatives of PRIs so that the required infrastructure is built as per the needs of people.
The Advisor emphasized upon the officers to provide uninterrupted water supply to the people besides making all possible arrangements to provide extra drinking water supply to the consumers during the critical times of COVID-19.Advisor Bhatnagar impressed upon the officials to reduce time taken for restoration of supply, close monitoring of complaints received on Helpline numbers, keeping reserve stock of critical components, making workshops functional, improving quality of water supplies and addressing issues of sedimentation. He also delved upon the officers to ensure that tankers are effectively used to fill gaps of increasing drinking water supply demand.Highlighting the need of extra water supply during winter season, the Advisor directed the department to put in place a mechanism by which adequate supply of potable water is provided to the consumers in the areas, which have increased demand during the winters.Earlier, Secretary Jal Shakti through a presentation gave a detailed progress report to the Advisor, where in complete information regarding the short term as well as long term measures planned by the department were highlighted besides other achievements of the department like increase in distribution system and employing standard safety measures were also underlined.Regarding the progress on implementation of JJM, the Advisor was informed that under JJM, district Ganderbal and District Srinagar have achieved 100% saturation in the implementation of scheme while as in rest of the districts more than 80% progress has been achieved with regular works going on smoothly.The Advisor was also informed that a minimum of10 days training programme for upgrading the skills of the employees in areas like masonry, plumbing, electricity, fitting etc will also be started in the month of January in pahsed manner covering almost 6400 personnel of the department.Speaking regarding the JJM, Advisor Bhatnagar maintained that this is a prestigious project announced by the Prime Minister with an aim of giving functional household tap connections to all households.The Advisor exhorted upon the officials that there should be no scope for laxity in implementation of JJM as it is a very prestigious project and the government is committed to provide assured basic services to the people living in rural areas and JJM is a step forward towards that.