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.
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.
