Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today inaugurated the new office building of the Tura PHE Sub-Division.
The PHE subdivision is one of the oldest in the Garo Hills region.
The new building was sanctioned in 2019 under State plan at a cost of Rs 1.57 crore.
During his address the chief minister expressed happiness that the infrastructure could be completed on time and hoped that the new building would enhance the efficiency of the department.
He said that in the last 4.5 years due to the concerted effort of the government the PHE department has gone through a transformation and is now one of the better performing departments in the State.
The chief minister also lauded the department for its performance in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission. He informed the gathering that Meghalaya is one of the best performing State in its implementation for which the State has received recognition in the form of an award.
“In the year 2018, we had only 4000 houses with household water connections. We were one of the lowest in the country in terms of household water connection, but in the matter of four and a half years we have almost close to 2.5 lakh houses in the rural areas that are now connected by functional tap water. The PHE department has been doing an excellent job in the implementation of this flagship programme,” he said.
He added that the good performance in the implementation of the programme has paid dividends for the state in the form of bonuses and additional funds received for its implementation.
The chief minister also said that in order to fulfil the needs of bigger towns and urban areas of the state, different central schemes are in various stages of implementation.
“In the last four and a half years, major water supply schemes have been taken up under different central government projects. Recently under the AMRUT scheme we have taken up the Williamnagar water supply scheme and under the NESIDS program of the DoNER Ministry we have been able to execute the water supply schemes for Sohra and Tura,” he added.
