The Odisha Government is unlikely to reach the toilet construction target by October 2, 2019, the deadline set by the Centre under the Swachchh Bharat Mission.
This is so conceived from the fact that while the Centre has asked the States to construction a toilet in everyone’s house by October 2, 2019, tonly 13 lakh toilets have been constructed so far in the rural areas of Odisha during last three years, and more than 70 lakh houses are yet to have toilets.
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a total of `12,000 is being provided to each household for construction of a toilet. If the State Government fails to meet the deadline, the Centre would stop giving its share and the State would bear all expenses from the exchequer, sources said.
According to an official data, a total of 33,759 toilets had been constructed during 2013-14, 1,30,925 in 2014-15 and 11,36,105 toilets were constructed in 2015-16.
During these years, the highest number of toilets was constructed in Baleswar district (93,498) followed by Mayurbhanj (76,501), Ganjam (70,994), Sundargarh (67,932), Bhadrak (66,193) and Angul (64,185).
The lowest number of 8,674 toilets has been constructed in Boudh district during the period.
Sources said State had received a total of `84, 48, 33,000 for construction of toilets during 2014-15, out of which Centre had provided `22, 54, 33,000 under the Swachh Bharat mission.
Similarly, State received `828, 06, 67,000 during 2015-16 FY, of which Centre provided `493.86 crore and State Government gave `334, 10, 67,000.
As not a single nationalised agency has contributed funds towards toilet construction, the Government has not engaged any contractor for construction of toilets. NGOs and self-help groups (SHGs) have been entrusted the job.
The delay in construction works has been reasoned out to be delay in payment to the concerned NGOs and the SHGs. The cumbersome process to get payments poses difficulties for them.
The organisations require signatures from the beneficiaries, the concerned Ward Members and Sarpanchs, who are not reportedly coordinating the project. Although, the demand is raised to assign the block engineers or any expert in the project, the authorities pay no attention towards it, sources said.
Notably, State-owned natural gas processing and distribution company GAIl, which was to construct toilets in Khurda district, was opposed by Sarpanches and locals.