The district administration has set a new trend constructing 59,000 Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) pursuing aggressively to declare the district Open Defecation Free (ODF) at the earliest.
As per the survey of 2012, in the present Jangaon district with a population of 5 lakhs, only 31% had ISL coverage. Though the programme was launched in October 2016, it slowed down due to demonetisation and teething troubles of the new district. There were also problems of men and material.
Speaking to The Hindu , District Collector Allamraju Devasena said they took up the programme on mission mode and on an average they completed 950 ISLs per day. “From 31% coverage we have reached 80% coverage within two months. We have time till December 2018, but by January 2019, we will declare the district Open Defecation Free,” she asserted.
During the recent review of the Swachh Bharat programme at State level, State Rural Development Commissioner and Telangana Project Director of Swachh Bharat Mission Neetu Kumari Prasad had appreciated the progress made by Jangaon district administration. She instructed officials of other districts to replicate the methods adopted by officials here.
Ms. Devasena said they had tough time convincing the rural poor to adopt ISL. The sarpanches were motivated and where they were not active, civil contractors were roped in.
District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Project Director M. Jayachandra Reddy said they adopted every possible method to make rapid progress in their mission. “We started ISLs en masse in many villages and uploaded photographs of first stage. We got ₹13 crore from the Centre and took up the rest. There was money, but problem was with men and material. We overcame those problems as well,” he explained.
Soak pits next
The District Collector said those villages which adopted 100% ISLs first would be sanctioned more funds to have cement concrete roads and other infrastructure. “We will focus next on soak pits in every household,” she said.
