Prepare alternate plans also for completion of works under JJM: Advisor Bhatnagar

JAMMU : Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today impressed upon the officers of the Jal Shakti Department to prepare alternative plans for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in case of facing any adversity in timely implementation of the mission.

These directions were passed by the Advisor to the officers of Mission during a review meeting held today at Civil Secretariat here.

The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary, Jal Shakti Department, M Raju; Mission Director, JJM, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers and other officers of the Jal Shakti Department.

All outside officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing from their respective districts.

On the outset of the meeting the Advisor asked the officers about the progress of the mission and asked them to meet their deadlines without any fail. He asked them to tender all the components of the scheme so that it is completed wholly and dedicated to public simultaneously.

Advisor Bhatnagar also impressed upon the officers to pre-check the capacity of each successful bidder before allotting works so that the projects are not stalled halfway.

The Advisor also instructed them to create futuristic projects that are able to meet public demands for almost next 30 years. He asked them to choose reliable water sources so that the discharge of water during lean season do not put the scheme into jeopardy.

He urged upon the officers of the mission to develop the internal monitoring mechanism for its effective implementation. He asked them to create a dashboard that is updated on daily basis to check the progress and quality of work of the mission.

Advisor Bhatnagar also stressed on third party evaluation of the works besides greater participation of public representatives in monitoring process.

The Advisor also asked about the pace of water testing under JJM and the remedial measures taken in case of poor quality of water found anywhere. He enjoined upon them to involve people in the testing process and give the testing kits to Paani Samitis for quality check of the tap water.

The Commissioner Secretary Jal Shakti informed the Advisor that the mission is under implementation from 2019 and has achieved a substantial target till now. He informed the meeting that 50647 rural institutions like schools, Anganwadi centres and health institutions have been provided piped water under this mission. He further added that shortly every Gram Panchayat is going to get the same as more than 50% progress has been achieved under this category as well.

He further informed that the UT is ahead of national average in implementation of several objectives of the mission. He said be it piped water to schools, rural health institutions or Anganwadi centres the performance of J&K is better than what has been registered at national level. He revealed that every remaining rural household would get the tap connection by 15th of August, 2022.

MD, JJM, Dr Syed Abid in his detailed presentation threw light on all the aspects of the mission. He gave detailed analysis of the objectives, procedures, progress and way forward to take the mission to its logical conclusion.

Dr Abid gave out that in order to create the long lasting and reliable assets in a time bound manner under the mission some modalities for tendering has been revised after proper approval from the authorities.

Elucidating, he said that, as per type of scheme and terrain four categories of schemes had been formulated. These include gravity and lift type schemes in hilly areas and gravity and lift type schemes in plain areas.

He also revealed that the bidders are being empanelled for a group of works for which item wise rates are invited in the tender. He said that the lowest bid rates after evaluation are going to be offered to other provisionally empanelled bidders for their acceptance. He said that this method has been devised after a lot of brainstorming and consultation among the stakeholders so that the objectives and projects are delivered in a timely manner.

The meeting was apprised that in order to enhance the transparency and monitoring of the works some 11 NGOs have been empanelled as Implementation Support Agencies (ISAs). These ISAs are going to work across 1638 villages and help in capacity building of Gram panchayats, Pani Samitiis and perform other support activities as well.

The meeting was also informed that in order to enhance the capacity of the engineering staff, the department has sent 145 engineers for attending training programmes both through online/offline mode besides conducting training for the field staff in nearby ITIs in consultation with the Skill Development department.