UT administration reconstitutes Apex Committee for Jal Jeevan Mission implementation

Chief Secretary to head panel; top UT departments, Centre and community representatives brought under unified water mission framework

HABEEL SAGAR

LEH: The Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh has reconstituted the Apex Committee of the State Water Sanitation Mission (SWSM) to oversee implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) across the Union Territory.

The constitution of the committee has been approved through order issued by the Public Health Engineering/Irrigation & Flood Control Department. The order supersedes all previous orders on the subject.

The move brings senior officials from key sectors—including finance, planning, health, rural development, education and information—onto a common platform for implementation of the drinking-water mission. The Chief Secretary, UT of Ladakh, has been designated as Chairperson, while the Administrative Secretary, PHE/I&FC Department, will serve as Member-Secretary.

The committee also includes the Joint Secretary, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, along with the Chief Engineer, PHE/I&FC, and nominated representatives from Rural Water Supply, Public Service/Community Development and Natural Resource Management.

The composition indicates that JJM implementation in Ladakh will involve coordination beyond the water-supply department, with administrative, financial, planning, health, rural development and educational agencies represented in the apex mechanism.

Importantly, the committee includes representatives connected with community development and natural resource management, giving the institutional framework a community and resource-management dimension alongside conventional water-supply administration.

The order specifies that the Apex Committee will exercise its functions as mandated under the guidelines of the Jal Jeevan Mission, while the PHE/I&FC Department will provide secretarial support to the committee.

The order has been circulated to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, National Jal Jeevan Mission, Divisional Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, all concerned Administrative Secretaries, Deputy Commissioners and senior PHE/I&FC officers, besides the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat and Information Department.

The reconstitution provides Ladakh with a centralised senior-level institutional mechanism for coordinating JJM implementation, bringing UT departments, the Union Government and nominated community/resource-management representatives into the same decision-making structure.