The Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat chaired a virtual conference today with all States/ UTs Ministers in-charge of rural water supply and reviewed the progress made under the Jal Jeevan Mission, a flagship programme of the Union Government for providing tap water connection in every rural household by 2024. The Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Rattan Lal Kataria, Chief Ministers of Haryana and Tripura also participated in the virtual conference. This Conference was organised to discuss various issues i.e., planning, implementation and progress made so far as well as the way forward so that the remaining households in villages get tap water connections at earliest.

Addressing the august gathering virtually, the Union Minister of Jal Shakticomplemented States/ UTs for the exemplary work carried out by them during the lockdown period in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic to provide tap connections to rural households. Shri Shekhawat expressed hope that all States/ UTs will make all out efforts to ensure ‘HarGhar Jal’ and discussed threadbare the planning, progress and roadmap to be followed by the States/UTs for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission with speed, scale and skill urged States/ UTs to speed up the implementation.

National Jal Jeevan Mission presented the progress in all States/ UTs and urged them to speed up the implementation to accomplish the goal of the Mission in a time-bound manner so that every rural household gets tap water connection in rural homes. The guidelines on Knowledge Resource Centre were released by the Union Minister which will help in engaging institutes of repute to impart training to various officials in the States/ UTs.

Addressing the media after the VC, Union Jal Shakti Minister said that the mission was launched by Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi with the aim of ensuring ‘ease of living’ in the lives of people living in rural areas and improving their quality of lives especially the lives of women of every household who endure the most for getting water for homes from a distance. Providing good quality of water to Households will lead to improvement in the health indices. The Mission not only aims to provide safe water to all but also creates employment opportunity for local people in rural areas. Skilled manpower in every village i.e. plumbing, masonry, electrical, pump operator, etc. are required, for which training is being imparted.

Under the vision and guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to make provision for piped water supply in schools anganwadicentres and ashramshalas (residential schools in tribal areas), a ‘100-days’ campaign has been launched on 2nd October, 2020 to ensure safe water to children for better health and holistic development. Shri Shekhawat said that ensuring potable water also becomes important as the States gears up to welcome the children post lockdown upon reopening of schools. The most important safeguard from COVID pandemic is washing hands regularly which requires availability of water supply within the premises of the schools, anganwadi and ashramshalas for drinking, cooking mid-day meals, hand washing and use in toilets, as a measure to save lives.

The Conference served as a platform to discuss important issues to expedite the implementation as well as to learn good practices from better performing States/ UTs. The Government’s endeavour is to improve lives of people by providing basic amenities in rural areas and Jal Jeevan Mission is working tirelessly to ensure ‘HarGhar Jal’.

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