Individual houses in rural areas of Madurai district are to get 91,891 toilets during 2015-16. Under the mission to declare Tamil Nadu an ‘open defecation-free State,’ 66,800 toilets are to be constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and 25,091 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Village poverty eradication committees and federations of self-help groups would be involved in creation of awareness of having toilets in individual houses and sustaining their use. An incentive of Rs. 300 would be offered per toilet for these groups, Collector L. Subramanian said in a release on Wednesday.
Applications for construction of toilets in houses could be had from panchayat and block development offices, District Rural Development Agency and Collector’s office. The subsidy of Rs. 12,000 would be released in two instalments, based on the progress of construction, he added. Solid waste management scheme would be implemented in 56 panchayats of the district at a cost of Rs. 3.08 crore this financial year. The scheme would include collection and segregation of waste; composting of biodegradable waste and sanitary land filling of non-degradable waste. The panchayats would sell recyclable plastic and paper.
According to the Collector, 511 ‘Cleanliness Guards’ would be deployed for implementation of the scheme – one guard for 150 families. They would be paid wages by the Tamil Nadu Women Development Corporation through village poverty eradication committees. The panchayats would be provided with 258 tri-cycles, machines to shred waste plastic, cleaning implements and uniforms for Cleanliness Guards. A training programme in solid waste management would be conducted for members of village poverty eradication committees and women’s self-help groups on April 17.
A subsidy of
Rs. 12,000 will be released in two instalments, based on the progress of construction
