Almost 50%of the residential houses in Chhatrapur, Ganjam, Hinjili blocks of Ganjam district do not have sanitary latrines with the people continuing to defecate at open spaces like riverbeds and roadsides.
The district administration’s claim in its record about existence of sanitary latrines in almost 90% of the houses in these and other areas under the initiatives of the District
Water and Sanitary Mission (DWSM) appears to be bogus and hollow. Information sought under the Right to information Act, 2005 on the names of owners of houses where latrines are constructed is not forthcoming.
According to a sarpanch of Chhatrapur block who did not wish to be identified, in many cases some petty NGOs provided some cement concrete rings and a few iron rods to the intended beneficiaries and then left without providing further assistance for construction of latrines.
It appears that some unscrupulous elements like these NGOs in collusion with DWSM field officials have misappropriated huge funds under the programme which aims to provide concrete sanitary latrines to achieve hygienic standards and safeguard public health.
Prominent citizens are of the view that individual holdings which are claimed to have been covered under the programme in various blocks should be physically verified to unearth the bogus claims of construction of pucca latrines.
There is an emerging public perception that the lists of individual holding of sanitary latrines under assistance from the DWSM should be affixed in respective block offices for public audit, says advocate and well-known film critic Kumud Prasad Achar.