Delay in making payments to the organizations by several district administrations is posing problems for toilet construction work in the State.
Around 88 per cent people of 96 lakh households do not have toilet across the State. The situation is miserable in the rural belt. The Government aims to make the State open defecation-free under the Swachh Bharat Mission scheme by 2019 by providing toilet facility to all the households.
Earlier, a person was getting Rs 10,000 for toilet construction under Clean India scheme. Currently, the amount has been raised to Rs 12,000 per head.
The Odisha State Water and Sanitation Mission has received Rs 36.10 crore from Centre and Rs 15.23 crore from the State Government under the Clean India scheme by previous fiscal 2014-15 since 2007-08 for construction of toilets across the State.
Initially, the Central Government had announced to make Odisha open defecation-free by 2022. Now timeline is set for 2019.
Keeping it in mind, the district administrations are taking the assistance from the private organisations for construction of toilets in the State.
As per the agreement, the private organisations are constructing toilets in houses, schools, anganwadis and community centres. However, due to delay in making payments to the organisations after the construction, the process has also been slow in many districts, reports said.
The firms are now not willing to continue the construction of projects under the Swachh Bharat Mission. And, some of the firms are withdrawing the projects raising security reasons.
Recently, GAIl India, which was assigned to carry out the toilet construction project in Khurda district, refused to continue as the Central PSU faced ill-treatment by the villagers. Similar allegations are also reported from other corners of the State due to which the process has been too slow to meet the target.