Shillong, Oct 11: PHE minister Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar said the government spent Rs 1600 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
He reviewed the implementation of the JJM on Tuesday and told reporters that the target to complete the mission is December, this year but till date, the state has crossed 40% of providing tap water connection to rural households.
“We have not withdrawn from the race but as I told you the number of households has also increased.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.
The minister said the number of targeted households has increased from 5.89 lakh households to 6.30 lakh households and till date, there are over 1400 villages, which have achieved 100% completion.
The reason for increasing the households is that based on the state government’s request, the concerned ministry has allowed the JJM to be extended to 9 census towns in the state.
“Hence, the number of households has increased to 6.30 lakh”, he added.
Tongkhar said though the engineers and officers of the department have given their best efforts, there is always scope to do better.
Payment to contractors
“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.
Third party inspection
The minister said the engineers have 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 problems they are facing and we expect this also will be resolved at the earliest.”
On allegations of corruption, Tongkhar said, “If someone expects perfection in the ongoing work, it may not be possible.”
