The massive target of constructing toilets in a stipulated time has become a hard nut to crack for the City Managers. After the recent orders of Municipal Commissioner, Shaantanu Kumar Agrahari to cancel the holidays of City Managers engaged in the ambitious project ‘Swacch Bharat Mission’ (SBM), the team is finding it tough to cope with the work pressure. According to the City Managers, in an attempt to fulfill the target, per day, they have to ensure the construction of 185 toilets at least.
The city managers have been assigned the duties of ensuring the construction of set number of toilets at each ward under the flagship programme of SBM a year ago. Notably, few days back, Agrahari, considering the Open Defecation Free (ODF) feeble status has cancelled the holidays of all the City Managers. The Managers have to ensure that toilets at each ward are constructed on or before October 2, 2017 as per the State government’s goal.
At present, eight City Managers are handling different projects in the Municipal Corporation. According to the sources, following the target of constructing 34,000 toilets in all 55 wards, one of the City Manager has resigned recently while few others are also planning to quit from their posts.
Even more, considering the work pace of the City Managers at different wards, the Administrative division of RMC has reset the target of September 2017 for completing the task of toilets construction. Though few City Managers have stated that the target of constructing toilets in each ward will get complete by September 15 but they too admitted that there is an immense work load upon them.
The City Manager leading the Municipal Corporation’s SBM team, Sandeep Kumar, said, “Though there is a work-pressure but we are trying to cope with it. As per our record, approximately 23,000 toilets in different wards have been constructed so far. By September 15, we have to complete the construction of 7,000 toilets more. In the month of July, approximately 500 toilets were built. After verification, the set target from 34,000 has been decreased to 30,000.”
However, Kumar remained tight-lipped on the resignation issue of the City Managers and said that two City Managers are on leave, however failed to give the details as from when they will resume their posts taking into account ODF deadline.
Meantime, Deputy Mayor, Sanjiv Vijayawargia held City Managers laid-back attitude for the delay in construction of toilets in different wards. Vijayawargia further added that the responsibility of constructing toilets was handed over to the Managers in 2016; however, no serious attempt was taken regarding this ever.
“The Municipal Corporation cannot take the responsibility of everything, if City Managers are resigning it is their wish. The project of construction of toilets has been lingering since long. As per my information, out of eight City Managers, two have submitted their resignation. Moreover, looking at the work progress, it was mandatory to set the deadlines for the City Managers,” added, the Deputy Mayor.
Nevertheless, in comparison to other wards the construction work of toilets in the four wards (52 to 55) is considerably slow. Even, the City Managers are yet to ensure the formation of ‘Swacchta Committee’ at few wards that was supposed to be created for monitoring purpose of toilets construction.