Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Central team to visit five village panchayats

Staff Reporter

To ascertain fulfilment of conditions to get award Kansapuram, Maththalampaarai, Ayyaneri, Velayuthapuram and Idaiyankudi panchayats have been recommended for the Union Government's `Nirmal Gram Purashkar' award

TIRUNELVELI: A team of officials from the Union Government will visit five village panchayats in the district, which have assured to construct toilets in all houses under their jurisdiction, to ascertain if these civic bodies have fulfilled the conditions for getting the Centre's `Nirmal Gram Purashkar' award.

Though the district administration and the District Rural Development Agency are aggressively campaigning for the construction of individual household toilets for the past few years, some of the 425 village panchayats in the district are still reluctantly co-operating with officials, causing a slowdown in achieving cent per cent sanitised status.

In this backdrop, Idaiyankudi panchayat in Radhapuram union received Rs. 5 lakh from the State Government last year for taking steps to construct toilets in every house while Velayuthapuram panchayat under Kadayanallur union won Rs. 5 lakh this year for achieving the goal.

"Moreover, Kansapuram, Maththalampaarai, Ayyaneri, Velayuthapuram and Idaiyankudi panchayats have been recommended for the Union Government's `Nirmal Gram Purashkar' award. Hence, a Central team is expected to visit these local bodies shortly to know if these cent per cent sanitised panchayats have completed the norms to receive the prize," said the Collector, Atul Anand.

Since most of the village and special village panchayats are keen on achieving cent per cent sanitised status, the Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in the district in 2002-2003 at the cost of Rs. 9.38 crores and later it was revised as Rs.12.79 crores.

For the construction of toilets for below poverty line families, 1,25,763 works were selected and Rs. 7.86 crore was allocated for the purpose. As many as 19 women sanitary complexes were constructed on an outlay of Rs. 38 lakhs while construction of 450 toilets in schools was taken up at the cost of Rs. 1.06 crores.

Apart from this, Rs. 77 lakhs was earmarked for rural sanitary centres and anganvadi toilets.

"The DRDA has so far issued orders for the construction of 1,25,763 individual household toilets in the rural parts of Tirunelveli and 43,961 toilets have been constructed so far. The women sanitary complexes are being maintained by the self-help groups and Rs. 12,000 is being given to the SHGs for the maintenance. Actually, these sanitary complexes act as an inducement for the villagers to go for the construction of toilets in their houses," the Collector said.

Under the school sanitation campaign programme, 410 toilets have been constructed on the premises of schools.

As the sanitary status of all 808 schools in the rural Tirunelveli is being examined by designated committees, all schools in the district will have toilets before December 2005, he said.

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