Guwahati: Assam Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on Thursday announced the completion of 50 per cent Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) under Jal Jeevan Mission.

As per minister, a total of 34,01,097 households out of 67,95,311 in Assam now have access to potable drinking water.

Minister expressed confidence to provide potable water to each and every household by 2024.

“The mission is relentlessly working to complete its target in Assam,” Baruah said.

“The state of Assam had struggled with the progress of FHTCs initially, however, over the period of last couple of years, the state has been able to cope with the expected progress”, he added.

He also mentioned that the state has also shown considerable progress in setting benchmarks including forming Village Water and Sanitation Committees.

In the event, speaking to the newly recruited 239 Class III and Class IV employees of the Public Health Engineering Department, Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah said that since the recruitment is carried out on the basis of merit, he asked the newly recruited employees to work with utmost dedication and enthusiasm towards achieving better results for the department and support the pace maintained in the progress achieved by Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam till date.

On Thursday, Minister Baruah expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Modi, stating that Prime Minister Modi has successfully transformed JJM into a Jan Andolan for water in the country and also thanked Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for their constant guide and support throughout the implementation phase.

Taking to Twitter, Baruah wrote, “Ever since Independence, households with tap water connection in our state till 15 August, 2019 was a mere 1.64% but in the last 3 years the proportion sky rocketed to 50.05%, where now more than half of the total number of households of our state have access to tap water connection.”