Jammu, Dec 7 – Former Minister and senior BJP leader Choudhary Sukhnandan Kumar on Wednesday said that by achieving Jal Jeevan Mission targets, if road surfaces are damaged causing huge loss to state exchequer which is a burden on the taxpayers, it is not development but a case of complete mis-governance.
At a time when people are being supplied with drinking water through taps, a huge population in many districts of Jammu and Kashmir is deprived of good road connectivity, Kumar here told reporters at a press conference flanked by Media Incharge Dr. Pardeep Mahotra and Seh-Prabhari BJP Jammu Border H S Pummy.
He said that with an aim of providing clean drinking water to every household in India, the Union Government launched Jal Jeevan Mission around four years back, adding, “this centrally sponsored scheme was formally launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019.”
The aim of JJM is to provide ‘Functional Household Tap Connections’ (FHTC) to every rural household in India by 2024, he added and said, “the Jal Jeevan Mission -JJM is aimed at creating a people’s movement — Jan Andolan for water. But at the same time, lack of coordination between various Govt organisations and engineering wings while executing JJM projects in J&K, causes lots of chaos and confusion.”
The former Minister also stated that there is a major scam in laying of water pipes as the digging work is done mechanically whereas the PHE department gets the money for manual digging so that the roads are not damaged fully.
“I am hopeful that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will take a serious notice of it and issue strict instructions to the administration to have coordination so that the general masses don’t suffer as this has resulted in complete chaos and confusion,” assured the former minister.
