Haryana Chief Secretary, Mrs. Keshni Anand Arora has directed all the Deputy Commissioners to work on priority basis for providing 55 liters pure drinking water per person per day in households of rural areas, under Jal Jeevan Mission, so that the target of providing 100 percent Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) in every household of rural areas can be completed by June 30, 2022.

The Chief Secretary gave these directions during a review meeting of the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ with the senior officers and the Deputy Commissioners through video conferencing here today.

The Chief Secretary directed the officers that under this mission, firstly a survey should be conducted in the rural area to get complete information about how many households are getting water from the taps.  Apart from this, it should also be surveyed how many houses have illegal water connections. She said that Suksham Yuvas should be involved in this task.   She directed that survey results should be matched with the Billing Information System for Water and Sewerage data and thereafter the legal and illegal connections should be identified.

The Chief Secretary said that as per the directions of the Chief Minister, such illegal connections should be legalized by March 31, 2020, for this, a scheme has been prepared by the  State Government, under which the department officials will visit the households and will take the consent of the house owners for converting the illegal connection into legal one.  While after taking the consent, the officials will have to complete the procedure of making the connection legal on the spot.  She directed the Deputy Commissioners to hold weekly review meetings of the work being done under this mission.

She said that under the Jal Jeevan Mission, for providing Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC), Rs 2000 as road cut charges have been waived off by the Government and citizens would be provided with two options either pay Rs. 500 upfront as new connection charges and or will pay Rs. 50 (i.e. Rs. 40 flat rate + Rs. 10 extra) for general connection and Rs. 30 (i.e. Rs. 20 flat rate +Rs. 10 extra) for SC connection., as per prevailing Government tariff pay, in this way the payment of Rs 500 as a connection fee will be collected.

It was informed that according to the 2011 census, there are a total of 31.32 lakh houses in the rural areas of the State and on the basis of survey data, 16.67 lakh houses have Functional Household Tap Connections and the survey of the remaining 14.56 lakh houses will be completed by 31 March 2020.

The Chief Secretary was apprised that under the ambitious scheme, a three-phase action plan has been prepared to provide 100 percent Functional Household Tap Connections by the year 2022.  It was informed that in the first phase, 22.07 lakh houses will be provided with functional household tap connections by September 30, 2020. While, in the second phase, 25.20 lakh houses will be provided with functional household tap connections by June 30, 2020, and in the third and final phase, 31.32 lakh houses will be provided with functional household tap connections by June 30, 2022. Currently, Haryana is ranked 4th in the country in terms of coverage of households in rural areas, with a coverage level of 53.47 percent.

It was informed that according to the guidelines issued by the Central Government, under this mission, a multitude of steps have been initiated including  State Water and Sanitation Committee, District Water and Sanitation Committees as well as Village Water and Sanitation Committees are being constituted. It has also been directed that women should have a 50 percent stake in the Village Water and Sanitation Committees. It was informed that the Public Health Engineering Department will play an important role in providing technical assistance to the panchayats about implement this scheme.

Additional Chief Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Mr. Dhanpat Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, and Farmers Welfare Department, Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal, Additional Chief Secretary,  Environment and Climate Change Department, Mrs. Dheera Khandelwal, Additional Chief Secretary,  Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Mr. Devender Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department, Mr. T.C. Gupta, Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department, Mr. Apoorva Kumar Singh and other senior officers were also present in the meeting.