State to showcase Jal Swapna project at nat'l webinar

Kolkata: After a Central team of National Jal Jeevan Mission lauded state's implementation of Jal Swapna project, the state government will now highlight its success in providing tap water connection to 5.5 lakh households in rural areas within 4 months at a national level webinar.

The webinar will be organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Representatives of all states will participate in the webinar on Saturday. It will begin from 11 am.

The Chief Engineer (Headquarters) of the state Public Health Engineering department — the nodal agency in the state to implement the Jal Swapna project — directed all superintendent engineers and executive engineers to attend the webinar. He wrote them a letter.

"You are requested to attend this important webinar for successful implementation of the Jal Swapna programme launched by the Chief Minister," it read.

According to a senior official, they will highlight the successful implementation of Jal Swapna project, at a cost of Rs 58,000 crore, in which at least 30 lakh households will be provided with tap water connection by March 2021. As many as 2.5 crore households will be brought under the scheme by 2024. The Chief Minister had launched the project on July 4.

The webinar will also be a knowledge-sharing platform among officials of the states and the Centre. So, all superintendent engineers and executive engineers were directed that "the information should be shared with all the Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers of the PHE directorate and they should also be directed to attend the programme."

The webinar will be live-streamed on social media platforms.

Officials of the department hold state level and district level meetings every week to assess the progress of the Jal Swapna projects and ensure timely implementation of the project in villages.