Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, has hailed Meghalaya as the torchbearer state in providing tap water connections under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). During his visit to the state, the honorable minister praised the state for producing outstanding results in JJM implementation and substantially increasing the number of households with tap water connections in the state.
At the initiation of the JJM in August 2019, only 4,550 rural households in Meghalaya had tapped water connectivity. Today tap connections have been established in as many as 2.61 lakhs households.
“With 41.5% growth in tap connectivity, Meghalaya surpassed the national growth rate of 36% making a role model state in JJM implementation”. “I have firm belief that Meghalaya will be able to provide tap water connections to the remaining households way before the deadline”; declared Shri Shekhawat.
According to Shri Shekhawat what makes the achievement of Meghalaya Government truly commendable is the fact that at the time of implementation of the JJM scheme, the State had less than 1 per cent coverage of tap water connected rural households. This according to the Minister clearly displays the quantum progress the state is making in ensuring safe and clean drinking water for its people under JJM.
“Meghalaya is the only state in India to qualify for ‘Performance Incentive Grant under JJM’ for 2 years in succession.” According to Shri Shekhawat, Meghalaya is also probably the only state with a holistic water policy and announced that around Rs. 700 crores would be spent in the state under the watershed management in the process of which around 2500 ponds would be constructed.
The Minister also lauded the efforts of the Meghalaya government for the ambitious projects that it has undertaken for spring rejuvenation and watershed management. The achievements of Meghalaya in these sectors would become an example for other states to follow, he added.
Commenting on Shri Shekhawat’s observations, CM Conrad K Sangma observed “The government of Meghalaya is striving hard to provide tap water access to every citizen. We thank Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for his unstinted support to our state in JJM implementation. His kind words of encouragement and appreciation of our efforts will motivate us to work even harder and bring the benefits of ‘Jal Jeevan’ mission to every Meghalayan household. Our state’s JJM team will leave no stone unturned for Meghalaya to receive the JJM performance incentive for a record third year in succession. We will pursue our mission of achieving 100 % functional household tap connection with renewed vigor.”
It should be mentioned that recently the Honorable President of India. – Smt. Droupadi Murmu conferred an award to Meghalaya for being one of the Best Performing states in the implementation of JJM in the country. In ‘Har Ghar Jal’ (HGJ) status, Meghalaya was ranked higher than Assam, J&K, Kerela, Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Goa, and other states. Meghalaya achieved HGJ status for 597 villages with close to 1500 villages achieving 100 % tap water coverage.
