State’s 18.77 lakh houses in rural areas get pucca lavatories

Raipur, February 10, 2012

Under Centre’s Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), pucca lavatories have been constructed in about 18.77 lakh houses in rural pockets.  The officials of Public Health Engineering (PHE) informed that 67 percent of the total houses which got new pucca lavatories belonged to BPL families while 45.42 percent houses belonged to APL families. The government targets to construct pucca lavatories in 33.92 lakh houses out of which 15.67 belonged to BPL families and 18.24 lakh belonged to APL families.

The officials further informed that the government had also constructed lavatories in 95 percent government schools and 99 percent Aanganbadi centres in rural areas under TSC. They said cent percent target would be achieved in the government schools and Aanganbadi centres under the campaign by March end in the current fiscal.

While PHE has been made a nodal department to carry out works under TSC, the line departments are Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Women and Child Health Department, Health Department, School Education Department and Tribal Welfare Department.

For effective implementation of the campaign, the government has constituted district, block and gram panchayat level water and sanitation committees. The panels at district level are chaired by Collectors, block-level by sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and gram level by sarpanchs.

The Government of India presented nirmal gram national awards to 693 villages of the state amid 2006 to 2010 for successful implementation of the campaign.

The campaign started in the state from Durg and Dantewada (South Bastar) districts back in 2003. By 2005, all the districts of the state were incorporated under the campaign.

The officials informed that grant for construction of pucca lavatories in BPL houses is Rs 3200 per unit while Aanganbadi centres is Rs 8000 per unit. The government schools, on the other hand, get cent percent grant, i.e. Rs 35000 per unit.

Notably, the Centre had launched TSC on October 2, 2003 with an objective to create awareness about sanitation among people.