Ramgarh is likely to join league of few districts in the country where open defecation habits would give way to more hygienic practices as the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department is likely to accomplish the goal of completely open defecation free (ODF) district by 2016-17.
Ramgarh’s progress on ODF front is claimed to be complete in around half of the administrative blocks, yet it failed to bag the title of first ODF district in India. Even as Ramgarh could not become first in the country, DWSD has set March deadline for declaring one block of the district-Dulmi— as ODF block. Officials of the department expressed that verification efforts are underway and the declaration may come sooner than the deadline.
"We cannot become first district as Nadia has already been declared. Bikaner has also claimed that they have become free. Now, we are thinking of first in Jharkhand. However, it is not possible in the current financial year. The concept of making district's ODF is not part of the March deadline. A new mechanism has been setup and Dulmi block of Ramgarh will be ODF by March 31. This will be a milestone in eastern region for ourselves,” said DWSD Secretary AP Singh.
Singh added that the scheme could not take off on time and it has been revived later with certain changes in the approach to achieve complete ODF State. Ramgarh's selection to make it first in Jharkhand is based on its proximity to the capital and 70 per cent coverage of water supply which is incidentally the most significant infrastructure that decides the success of ODF schemes.
As the focus shifted on achieving ODF free blocks then moving upwards up to districts, the department is pulling up socks to take the mission of ODF blocks in 57 blocks in Jharkhand and make those blocks ODF by June of which is likely to include around 3-4 blocks of Ramgarh District.
"We could accomplish our work in Ramgarh and Chitarpur by April-May or we could achieve the target for Ramgarh rural even by March. Remaining two blocks of Ramgarh will be complete in next nine months," asserted Singh. The department's revised strategy focuses on increasing number of ODF blocks by judiciously using resources at its disposal and the targeted steps would be taken to make small districts ODF in financial year 2016-17.