Punjab’s two districts secured its place in top ten districts across India under regular monitoring of the Central Government’s Mission Swach and Swasth with Fatehgarh Sahib district topping the list.
Fatehgarh Sahib district along with Barnala district, which managed to bag the ninth spot in the country, would be felicitated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2 at a function in New Delhi.
Both these districts have been showing exemplary performance and the Centre’s Water Supply and Sanitation Department was trying its best to replicate this performance in other districts of the state also, said an official spokesperson.
Spokesperson said that to make the country clean and healthy by year 2019, the Centre’s Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation was carrying out regular monitoring of the states under Mission Swach and Swasth to promote a healthy competition amongst all the states to provide potable water and sanitation to the people.
Sharing the information, the state Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa underlined the need for laying more thrust on border districts such as Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur and Pathankot under the scheme.
He has directed the officers concerned to review the entire situation in these districts and submit a detailed status report to him, regarding the restarting of closed schemes.
Bajwa also gave directions to bring villages under the scheme to provide 12 to 24 hours water supply, construction of toilets in villages and make them open defecation free (ODF).
He said that in order to make the rural areas of the state ODF, the state government has already embarked a major programme, under which 10 districts have achieved this status. More than half of the villages in Patiala and Mansa district have also been made ODF, he said.
Though Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has set the target of this year-end to make the state ODF, the Department was trying its best to achieve this goal by November-end, Bajwa said.