Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora has directed all Deputy Commissioners to work on a priority basis for providing 55 litre pure drinking water per person per day in the households of rural areas, under Jal Jeevan Mission, so that the target of providing 100 per cent 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 on Monday.
The Chief Secretary directed the officers that under this mission, firstly a survey should be conducted in a rural area to get complete information about how many households were getting water from taps. Apart from this, it should be surveyed how many houses have illegal water connections. She said 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 as per the directions of the Chief Minister, such illegal connections should be legalised by March 31, 2020. For this, a scheme has been prepared by the state government, under which the department officials would visit households and take the consent of house owners for converting illegal connection into legal one. 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 under the Jal Jeevan Mission, for providing Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC), Rs2,000 as road cut charges have been waived off by the government and citizens would be provided with two options — either pay Rs500 upfront as new connection charges or pay Rs50 (i.e. Rs40 flat rate + Rs10 extra) for general connection and Rs30 (i.e. Rs20 flat rate + Rs10 extra) for SC connection., as per the prevailing government tariff pay. In this way, the payment of Rs500 as a connection fee would be collected.
It was informed that according to the 2011 Census, there were 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 would be completed by 31 March, 2020.
Crackdown on Illegal water connections
- The Chief Secretary directed the officers that under this mission, first a survey should be conducted in a rural area to get complete information about how many households are getting water from taps
- Apart from this, it should be surveyed how many houses have illegal water connections
- She directed that Suksham Yuvas be involved in this task and survey results be matched with the billing information system for water and sewerage data and thereafter the legal and illegal connections should be identified
- She said as per the directions of the CM, such illegal connections should be legalised by March 31, 2020. For this, a scheme has been prepared, under which the department officials would visit households and take the consent of house owners for converting illegal connection into legal one
