PHE providing piped water to only 37% of Anganwadi Centres in Assam

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has been able to provide piped water supply connections to only 37 per cent of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in the State.

This was disclosed by the PHE Department in February last during a review meeting of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the State, which was attended by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The Union Minister had then expressed dissatisfaction at the poor progress of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the State.

The departmental officials had informed the Union Minister that the low rate of provision of piped water supply to AWCs was due to the fact that a sizeable number of AWCs are operating from rented premises in the State and it is difficult to obtain No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the house owners.

However, officials of the Social Welfare Department, which runs the AWCs, has a difficult story to tell.

They said that there are 61,715 functional AWCs in the State. As many as 41,763 AWCs are operating from Government premises, 10,231 are operating from rented premises, 8,258 are operating from school campuses and 1,527 are operating from various public institutions.

This means that over 83 per cent of AWCs in the State are operating from various Government premises and only about 16 per cent are operating from rented houses. In fact, this data indicates that the pretext cited by the PHE officials is untenable when it comes to the tardy implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in AWCs.

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