Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh is ranked 12th in the country with a score of 87.4 out of 100 in Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation’s ‘Swachch Survekshan 2016-Gramin” (Cleanliness Survey 2016-Rural).
Ranjandgaon district had been ranked 32nd with a score of 78.4 while Koriya district is ranked 43 with a score of 72.
Only three Chhattisgarh districts out of 27 appear in the ranking list of the Ministry mainly — Dhamtari, Rajnandgaon and Koriya.
Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar, on Thursday had released the ‘Swachh Survekshan’ for rural India, revealing Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) as the cleanest districts in India. A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May 2016.
Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category, with districts of Sikkim, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) featuring at the top of the index.
The Ministry had commissioned Quality Council of India (QCI) to carry out the assessment. Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was places on accessibility to safe toilets and water.
The assessors appointed by QCI individually visited all districts covered under the Survekshan to make a comprehensive analysis of the on-ground situation and progress.
The Chhattisgarh Government had claimed last month that Eight lakh toilets had been built in as many as 4,311 villages in 11 development blocks and 2,432 gram panchayats in less than two years of the launch of ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ in Chhattisgarh.
The target is to make the rural areas in Chhattisgarh ‘ODF’ by December 2018, officials had informed.
Panchayat and Rural Development officials said that funds are provided to build toilets to the citizens. Incentive money is provided apart from the cost of construction. Notably, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar had informed the Assembly during the monsoon session held in July this year that the work for constructing toilets had been going on in all the 27 districts of the State.
In a written reply to BJP member Devjibhai Patel, the Minister had informed that during 2015-16 against the target of 70,0473, a total of 49,5208 toilets had been constructed.
He had informed that the “Swachch Bharat Mission (Rural)’ is a demand based mission in which the construction of toilets are carried out either by the beneficiary himself or with the assistance of Rural Water and Cleanliness Committee.
The toilets are constructed only when the beneficiary is interested in getting a toilet constructed and is willing to use it, Chandrakar had stated.
On Tuesday of every week district collectors carry out review of work done under ‘Swachch Bharat Mission (Rural)’ in the time-limit meeting, he had stated.