A day after the CAG report tabled in the Vidhan Sabha questioned aspects of the Namami Gange and termed the open defecation status announced in 2017 as incorrect, the Additional Secretary and State project director of Namami Gange, Raghav Langer clarified the situation regarding the toilets of 132 village Panchayats located on the banks of river Ganga under ‘Namame Gange’ programme mentioned in CAG report.
He informed that the declaration of ODF village Panchayats was done on the basis of targets fixed under baseline survey done in 2012 by the districts. After the construction of toilets between August 2015 and December 2016, these villages were declared ODF.
Presently, 430 families that are without the facility of toilets in these 132 Panchayats were either left out of the baseline survey of 2012 or increased due to population increase and division of families.
Langer informed about the entire State that in the quick survey done by the districts in 2018, there are 83,945 identified families without toilets who were either left out in the 2012 baseline survey or increased after the survey. To include these families in the scheme, an extra budgetary resource of Rs 100.73 crore has been sought from the Central Government by the State Government.
He, further, informed that in the districts of Chamoli, Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri, Rudraprayag,Tehri and Uttarkashi in the 132 Panchayats located on the banks of Ganga river and selected under Namami Gange programme, in the baseline survey of 2012 out of total 29,029 families, 10,019 families were found without toilet facilities.
Out of these families without toilet facilities, 9,619 families under Namami Gange, 96 families under MNREGA, 101 families under combination of MNREGA/ Indira Awas Yojana and 59 families under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan were provided toilets and the rest of 144 families were benefitted through own resources or through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.
A total of 10,019 families were provided toilets facilities. In these 132 village Panchayats, apart from 10,019 toilets built, under Swachchh Bharat mission funds 659 non- operational toilets were made functional and 557 families were provided toilets. Presently, 430 families in 132 Panchayats are without toilet facilities that were either left out in the baseline survey of 2012 or increased in number due to division of families.
The villae Panchayats which have been declared ODF are on the basis of the targets set in the 2012 baseline survey by the districts. After the construction of the toilets, these village panchayats were declared ODF during the period from August 2015 to December 2016. As per the guidelines of the Swachchh Bharat Mission (Gramin), families which do not have access to toilets have been identified on the basis of 2012 baseline survey. After the construction of toilets in the families identified, the announcement regarding ODF was made. As per the baseline survey 2012, after constructing the toilets for the 5,09,830 families identified without toilet facility, all the 13 districts made the announcement of ODF, following which government made an announcement on ODF in June 2017.