Chief Minister Raghubar Das has asked Tata Steel to construct community toilets along Tata-Bahragora road under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund during Open Defecation-Free (ODF) conclave-2017 on Friday at Project Bhawan, which the company accepted then and there.
Speaking in the programme organized by CII, the CM also asked corporate houses like CCl and others to divert their CSR funds to construct community toilets along important national highways passing through or along their area of operation with a view to comfort the travelers and make the state ODF.
Das said that along with Self Help Groups (SHGs), corporate houses, people and all other stakeholders, the government would make the state ODF by 2018. 1% fund out of 2% to be expensed under CSR has been provisioned to expense through the council. He said that the CSR Council formed in the State was ensuring that the funds were mobilized according to local needs of the State. He said that historic decision of expenditure of 30 percent of funds received by District Mineral Foundation after its formation has heralded the pace of development in the related region.
“In different spheres of the state, Rs 1,500 crores pipeline water supply schemes are being implemented. The increase in pipe water supply has reached to 30 percent from 12 percent. This will also help in keeping the toilets clean and ensure ODF,” added Das where Tata Steel Vice President and CII Jharkhand Circle Chairman Sunil Bhaskaran, Drinking Water and Sanitation Department Principal Secretary AP Singh, Industry and Mining Department Secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal who is also Secretary to the CM, Mission Director (Sanitation) Rajesh Sharma, District ODF Coordinators and other officials and stakeholders were present.
“Small works lead to big changes. A small girl in Jamshedpur built a toilet for a poor family from her pocket money. We are moving forward for a new change. 25 blocks, 742 Gram Panchayats and 5,136 revenue villages have been made ODF. Other 35 blocks of the state will be made ODF by the end of this month. As many as 12.71 lakh toilets have been constructed in the State. But I strongly believe that the days to consider that cleaning of streets and surroundings is the responsibility of government alone have gone, and now everyone will have to have his efforts count to get a clean Jharkhand and India,” said the CM.
Bhaskaran said in his opening remarks that it made lot of sense for corporates to do something in ODF. “We are targeting 20,000 toilets every year for another three years. CII has been working with Jharkhand government in many sectors,” said Bhaskaran.At the same time, AP Singh said that the corporates had started diverting portion of their CSR fund in programmes like ODF, which was helping the government a lot.