Following the thrust placed on rural sanitation by the Central government, over 40,000 Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISL) have been proposed to be constructed in the Ranga Reddy district under the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ scheme before next financial year.
Also proposed are significant number of toilets in schools and Anganwadis of the district, apart from a comprehensive Solid and Liquid Waste Management scheme for each village to be covered under the programme, with a proposed outlay of Rs.67.73 crore.
Explaining about the scheme at the District Water and Sanitation Committee meeting organised on Thursday, Collector A.Vani Prasad said a total of 165 villages, five from each of the 33 rural mandals, have been chosen for the Annual Implementation Plan for the year ending on March, 2013.
The Collector noted that the major challenge lay in making people use toilets, as quite a few toilets already constructed under the Total Sanitation Programme were lying unused. To address this issue an intensive Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign has been proposed through the use of mass media, folk media, wall paintings and hoardings, and village level workers.
A total of 42,672 individual toilets for as many families at a cost of Rs.10,000 each are proposed in the chosen villages on a cost sharing basis between the Central and State governments. The Central government will grant Rs.3,200 for each toilet, while the State’s share will be Rs.1,400.
Of the remaining, Rs.4, 500 will be drawn from the MGNREGS funds, and Rs.900 will be the beneficiary contribution. In case of a total of 1,504 school toilets costing Rs.35, 000 each, the expenditure will be shared in the ratio of 70:30 by both governments. The same fund sharing ratio will be applicable to the 1,394 Anganwadi toilets proposed at Rs.8, 000 each.
As part of the Solid Liquid Waste Management, tricycles will be provided to poor families to collect and carry the garbage to the village dump yard. Construction of community sanitary complexes and rural sanitary marts will be part of the Annual Implementation Plan. Also proposed are the compost systems, low cost drainage, and soakage channels.
