TAKING THE SALUTE: District in-charge Minister Jabbar Khan Honnali receiving the guard of honour at the Republic Day parade in Mangalore on Thursday.

MANGALORE: According to the 2001 Census, 70,084 of the 2,30,734 families in Dakshina Kannada do not have a toilet in their house. People's representatives should see to it that every house has a toilet to ensure sanitation, said Jabbar Khan Honnali, district in-charge Minister, here on Thursday.

Delivering the Republic Day message at the Nehru Maidan here, Mr. Honnali said that women and children in villages suffer from anaemia and malnutrition and do not have access to potable water.

Defecation in open spaces leads to pollution of water and causes diseases such as cholera to spread. Toilets should be constructed in every house to prevent this, he said. The Minister called upon people's representatives to work towards making the "Sampoorna Swachhata Andolana" (Total sanitation campaign) a success.

He said the Union Government presents the "Nirmala Grama Puraskara" to panchayats that keep their villages clean and ensure that all houses have toilets.

He said that starting from this month, the State Government will give a certificate to those panchayats that construct the most number of toilets a month. Mr. Honali said that according to a survey conducted in the district in 2005, there are 1,52,056 families living below the poverty line and 2,16,543 families living above the poverty line.

These families will be issued computerised yellow ration cards. Mr. Honnali symbolically gave away computerised yellow ration cards to five persons .

He felicitated four students from the district who secured the first place in various national-level competitions.

They are: B. Pramukh, tenth standard student of St. Aloysius High School (national level 400 X 100 free style swimming competition); K. Manasa, eighth standard student of Ramakrisha High School (national-level chess competition); Sukesh Poojary Belthangady, first year student of PES Engineering College (national-level NCC shooting competition); and Sonali Lorin Fernandes, Masters in Social Work, Roshni Nilaya (gold and silver medal winner in a national-level power lifting competition). Deputy Commissioner H.V. Parshwanath; Inspector General of Police, Western Range, K.S. Suresh Babu; Superintendent of Police B. Dayananda and Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat A. Kunjppa participated.

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