Poor performance of Barak Valley in Jal Jeevan Mission, says Assam minister

The performance of Barak Valley districts of Assam in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has been poor with only 6 to 8 per cent of this fiscal’s target achieved in its three districts, Public Health Engineering Department Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass said in the state Assembly on Tuesday.

Unavailability of contractors for implementation of JJM is among the problems in the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi, he said. Replying to a discussion moved by ruling BJP legislator from Silchar Dipayan Chakraborty during Member’s Hour, Dass said, “Barak Valley is the worst performer in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.” “The way things move in Barak Valley is different from in other parts of the state, if I may say so. But we are working to improve it,” he added.

Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, it is targeted to provide functional tap water connection to all rural households by 2024.

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The minister further said he will undertake a five-day visit of Barak Valley in September to streamline the work and urged the MLAs of the three districts cutting across party lines to cooperate with the department in this regard.

“The overall performance of the state in implementing JJM will suffer if that of Barak Valley doesn’t improve,” he added. Dass said that there are other problems in Barak valley which are peculiar to the area.

"For instance in one case we had to re-align an underground water supply pipeline as it was otherwise running through Mizoram territory and they were unwilling to allow us to construct it,” he said.

Raising the matter, Chakraborty claimed there was a scarcity of tap water in Silchar and urged for speedy redressal of this perennial problem.

The minister later told PTI outside the House that only 6 per cent of the target set for this financial year under JJM for Cachar district has been achieved so far.

In Karimganj district, the achieved target so far has been 7 per cent and in Hailakandi it has been 8 per cent, he added.

“In most other districts, it is between 20 to 40 per cent. We are working on improving the performance in Barak Valley,” Dass said, adding that there are problems in hilly regions of the state too and those are also being dealt with.

Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, it is targeted to provide functional tap water connection to all rural households by 2024.