The Central Government’s flagship Jal Jeevan Mission was not only aimed at providing safe water to all but also sought to create employment opportunities for local people in rural areas, Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said.
Skilled manpower including plumbers, masons, electricians, pump operators, etc., was required, for which training was being imparted. The provision of good quality water to households would also lead to an improvement in health indices, the minister added.
Shekhawat made these observations while addressing the media after a virtual conference with all states and union territories in-charge of rural water supply to review the progress made under the Jal Jeevan Mission that aimed to provide tap water connection in every rural household by 2024 on Tuesday.
The minister said that the mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure 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.
Earlier, addressing the gathering conference, Shekhawat complimented states and union territories for the exemplary work carried out by them during the lockdown period in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide tap connections to rural households. He expressed hope that all states and union territories would make all-out efforts to ensure ‘Har Ghar Jal’ (water to all homes) and discussed threadbare the planning, progress and roadmap to be followed for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission with speed, scale and skill.
The mission officials presented the progress in all states and union territories, urging the participants to speed up the implementation to accomplish the programme’s goal in a time-bound manner.
The minister also released the guidelines on the Knowledge Resource Centre, which will help in engaging institutes of repute to impart training to various officials in states and union territories.
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 and union territories. The Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Rattan Lal Kataria and Chief Ministers of Haryana and Tripura also participated in the virtual conference.
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