Chharba Gram Panchayat Pradhan Rumi Ram Jaiswal had imposed penalty on residents caught defecating in the open.
A total of 35, 069 houses in Dehradun district are without toilet facility. The Central Government had launched Nirmal Gram Puraskar, an award based incentive scheme for fully sanitised and open defecation free Gram Panchayats, blocks, districts and States in October 2003. This Puraskar aims to incentivise panchayati raj institutions to make the villages open defecation free and promote safe sanitation and clean environment as a way of life in rural areas. This award is given to those panchayats which have adopted a resolution to ban open defecation within their entire area. Panchayats are awarded Rs one lakh cash where population is less than 1,000 and Rs two lakhs to panchayat where population varies from 1000 to 1999.
Rs four, Rs eight lakh and Rs 10 lakh are given to panchayats where population varies between 2000 to 4999, 5000 to 9999 and 10000 and above respectively. Under guidelines, this award money should be use for improving and maintaining sanitation facilities in respective areas.
In Dehradun district, 58 out of 403 gram panchayats were awarded this Puraskar which included 13 gram panchayats in 2006, 24 in 2007, 17 in 2008 and four in 2009.
Talking to The Pioneer Jaiswal said,“To secure Nirmal Gram Puraskar and facilitate the residents, we have made three toilets at various places including Bal Vikas and Mahila Meeting Centre, Banjara Basti Dharmshala and Shiv Durga Mandir campus. We had passed a resolution in the ward members' meeting preventing defecation in the open and penalty to be imposed against violators last year. Apart from this, we have installed notice boards at various places highlighting penalty to be imposed on those caught defecating in the open in the panchayat. We have imposed penalty varying between Rs 50 to Rs 250 on four persons caught defecating in the open so far.”
District Project Management Unit Swajal project manager TC Mathur said that as many as 1.32 lakh residents in rural areas are having toilet facility while 35, 069 houses are without toilets.
The department organises awareness campaign periodically about the scheme among the residents. Under Total Sanitation Campaign, departments give Rs 5,100 to the rural persons belonging to SC/ST and OBCs for constructing toilets in their homes after verification by the district officials. “This year, we had target of constructing 6,765 toilets out of which 3,366 were constructed by October," he added.