Public Health Engineering (PHE) minister Jacob Zhimomi on Friday informed that the state would provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to all households in rural areas by March 2023 under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
Speaking at the mid-year review meeting on JJM at the PHE directorate here on Friday, Jacob further expressed displeasure over the slow progress of FHTC under JJM as only 93,121 (24.14%) out of the total targeted 3,85,699 households have been covered so far.
He observed that the engineers and other staff “have done well but not enough” as the percentage of coverage was very low.
He urged the staff to prepare a proper plan and formulate a policy on how to implement the scheme, while instructing the officials to lift materials to their respective districts without delay. The minister insisted that as there was no shortage of funds, there should not be any excuse for delay citing fund shortage.
Jacob reminded the officials that the department was left with only 16 months to cover 3,22,278 households, directing that FHTC should be completed by March 2023. He also asked the engineers not to delay in preparing detailed project report (DPR) for State-level clearance to enable uninterrupted work and timely completion.
Lauding the department for providing 97.75% FHTC coverage in educational institutions, Jacob stressed that coverage of health centres and Anganwadi centres should be improved as the coverage was average thus far. He emphasised that there should not be any miscommunication between the officials and directorate that could delay work, while seeking drastic improvement in FHTC implementation from the department within six months.
He also announced that the best performing districts would be rewarded, adding that if all the 12 districts performed well, then all of them would be rewarded too. Maintaining that the scheme was unlike any other since it was implemented on a mission mode with a specific time-frame for completion, Jacob said the department or the State cannot make an effort to keep the name of Nagaland at the bottom of the list at national level.
In his keynote address, PHED chief engineer and HoD Repangyangba Longkumer said out of the targeted 3,85,699 households, FHTC coverage was 93,121 (24.14%) as on September 23, 2021.
FHTC target for the year 2021-22 was 206363, of which only 29700 (14.39%) have been covered as on September 23, 2021.
On the status of tap connections in schools, he said out of 2,271 targeted schools, 2,220 connections have been provided (97.75%). At Anganwadi centres, the target was 3,980, however only 1,474 connections have been provided and the rest would be completed by December 2021.
On status of tap connections to ashrams and other public institutions, Longkumer said out of 1,298 gram panchayats/village council halls in the state, 229 connections have been made while 1069 would be completed by February 2022.
Further, he said that out of 760 health centres, connections to 676 including 34 Community Health Centres would be made by November while 143 Primary Health Centre would be covered by December 2021 and 499 would get the tap connections by February 2022.
Earlier, the programme was chaired by S&WSSO chief engineer T Sangtam. This was followed by a technical session.