Jal Jeevan Mission succeeds in achieving 50 per cent of its target in Assam: PHED Minister

Guwahati (Assam) [India], June 1 (ANI): Assam Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on Thursday announced the completion of 50pc Functional Household Tap Connections under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Assam while chairing a meeting for the orientation of newly recruited Class III and Class IV Employees of the Public Health Engineering Department at Sri Sri Madhavedeva International Auditorium in Guwahati.
Addressing the gathering at the orientation event, the Minister expressed confidence to provide potable water to each and every household by 2024.
"A total number of 34,01,097 households out of 67,95,311 in Assam now have access to potable drinking water. The mission is relentlessly working to complete its target in Assam," Jayanta Malla Baruah said.
The Assam Minister also expressed his views that the state of Assam had struggled with the progress of FHTCs initially, however, over the period of last couple of years, the state has been able to cope with the expected progress.
He also mentioned that the state has also shown considerable progress in setting benchmarks including forming Village Water and Sanitation Committees.
Earlier in the day taking to Twitter, Minister Baruah expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Modi, stating that Prime Minister Modi has successfully transformed JJM into a Jan Andolan for water in the country and also thanked Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for their constant guide and support throughout the implementation phase.
It is worth mentioning that ever since independence, households of Assam had only 1.64% of tap water connections, but in the last few years the proportion skyrocketed to 50.05% after Prime Minister Modi initiated the Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019.
In the event, speaking to the newly recruited 239 Class III and Class IV employees of the Public Health Engineering Department, Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah said that since the recruitment is carried out on the basis of merit, he asked the newly recruited employees to work with utmost dedication and enthusiasm towards achieving better results for the department and support the pace maintained in the progress achieved by Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam till date. (ANI)