Chief Minister Raghubar Das hailed the contribution of Rani Mistry and Jal Sahiya in attaining Government’s Swachhta goal. He said that the trained women masons (Rani Mistry) and Jal Sahiyas have helped the State in attaining ‘Open defecation free’ (ODF) status.

Replying to the query posed by Jharkhand Vikas Morcha - Prajatantrik (JVM-P), MLA Pradeep Yadav in the assembly on Wednesday Das said, “I thank the contribution of Rani Mistry and Jal Sahiya in helping the state achieve ODF tag. In 2014, only 18 percent toilets were constructed, but due to sincere effort of these two voluntary outfits around 99 percent toilets have been constructed now.”

The State Government, to achieve its sanitation target under Swachh Bharat Mission, had given mason training to women for constructing toilets in rural areas.  Jal Sahiya are women volunteers who were earlier engaged in water conservation, but later included in Swachh Bharat Mission.

Yadav along with other opposition members in question hour, made a mockery of government claim of declaring Jharkhand as complete ODF.  Chief Minister upset with opposition members’ intervention, lambasted the opposition asking them not to make fun of state’s effort in ODF.

The CM said, “The state being declared ODF is our way of paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary.” The Government accepted that there are some shortcomings as there were reports of faulty construction of toilets, but the main aim was to create awareness among people about Swachhta and the Government is happy that people, especially women, have understood the Swachhta message.

Earlier, Yadav in the question hour, pointed out that the State Government, to make state ODF had constructed 40 lakh toilets, but majority of these are unused and the villagers are using them to keep cattle. He also alleged large scale corruption in the construction work of toilets, and a lack of proper monitoring system for the same.

Replying to lawmaker grievances, water resources, drinking water & sanitation minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary said, “As per the directive of Swachh Bharat Mission there is regular monitoring of ODF villages. As per the directive, a village has to be verified within 90 days and then again within six months of being declared as ODF.”

The Minister said that apart from the SBM directive, monitoring and verification is also done by national annual rural sanitation survey and a third party survey by an independent agency.

The Minister claimed that apart from above agencies engaged in monitoring the sanitation work, the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) too will carry out monitoring and verification of declared ODF villages in the coming days.