The 25 per cent of the rural folks in Punjab do not have access to the public toilets. However, the State Government on Monday claimed that the toilets would be constructed on a “mission mode” in the stipulated time frame by October 2017.
Punjab is fast marching towards acquiring the unique status of the first ‘Open Defecation Free’ State in the country with 75 per cent of the rural population having access to the public toilets, claimed the State Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra during his meeting with Centre’s Department of Water Supply and Sanitation secretary Vijay laxmi Joshi. She was in Punjab to review the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Rakhra said that for this purpose, the Punjab Government has approved ‘Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Sector Improvement Project’ (PRWSSIP). “This project would support the construction of 6.25 lakh individual household latrines (IHHl) in the rural areas. The estimated unit cost of a household latrine would be Rs15,000 and the State Government would finance Rs6,000 for each IHHl whereas remaining amount is expected from the Centre,” he said.
Joshi assured the State Government that there would be no shortage of funds for Swachh Bharat Mission and the Centre would examine Punjab’s case for additional funds positively.
Earlier, reviewing the activities under Swachh Bharat Mission in Punjab, Joshi had video conferencing session with all the Deputy Commissioners.
“Mission’s intent, from day one, is the behaviour change of the masses with regard to their health and sanitation issues. It should not be confused as engineering exercise of construction of toilets but it is a social movement to change people’s mindset by mobilizing community towards adopting healthy sanitation practices,” she said.
Punjab’s Water Supply and Sanitation additional chief secretary Suresh Kumar said that the State Government’s main focus has been to generate awareness among people about the ill effects of open defection and persuade them to use the toilets.
“To roll out the action plan of Swachh Bharat Mission, the State Government has constituted a State Sanitation Cell headed by Director Sanitation whereas in all 22 districts, District level Sanitation Cells have been formed under the chairmanship of Executive Engineers. Block Sanitation teams have also been formed in 146 blocks comprising of three members. The mandate of all these cells and teams is to monitor that the action plan is being implemented at the grass root level,” he said.
In 2001, Punjab had 2.7 million rural household of which 1.1 million (41 percent) reported access to toilets. By 2011, the number of rural household increased to 3.3 million and of this 2.3 million (70 percent) reported access to toilets.
Also putting before Joshi, various issue hampering the State to implement Swachh Bharat Mission effectively, Kumar made a point that present guidelines of NRDWP do not allow preferential allocation for habitations of difficult areas, that is Kandi, Border and water-logged areas.
It was urged that weightage for this area should be allowed in the financing pattern.