Shillong, Jan 31: Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, instead of Community and Rural Development (C&RD) department, will now be responsible for implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen Plus (SBMGP) in Meghalaya, according to a cabinet decision taken on Thursday.
Explaining the necessity of the decision, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said the PHE department had been facing challenges in implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) due to shortage of manpower.
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JJM being one of the core programmes of PHE department, the government has decided to pass on the responsibility of SBMGP to C&RD department, which has more manpower at the grassroots.
Besides, the chief minister said, C&RD department is implementing the programme in most of the states in the country as it has the required machinery and manpower in a much faster and better manner.
The suggestion for shifting the programme to PHE department also came from Union Jal Shakti Ministry, he said.