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Bhubaneswar: The state government Thursday asked all the district collectors to ensure timely construction of 26 lakh toilets as individual household latrine (IHHL) targets for 2016-17 fiscal.
The direction was issued by Chief Secretary AP Padhi to the collectors at a high-level review meeting at the Secretariat here.
The meeting revealed that 13,29,932 toilets were constructed in the state during the previous fiscal against the target of 12,00,000 – an achievement of about 111 per cent. Twenty districts – Angul, Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khurda, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh achieved more than 100 per cent, officials said. Other 10 districts achieved around 90 per cent of the target during the year. “Target was set to complete 26 lakh toilets during 2016-17. The project would be implemented with the funds available from Central and state governments on the basis of 60:40,” officials said after the meeting.
Padhi said the state government was actively considering a system for third party evaluation of open defecation-free (ODF) villages, changes in habits of people and use of toilets there. He advised the collectors to ensure self-certification by the ODF village, gram panchayat or block. The inter-block certification would be done by district water and sanitation committee. Padhi further asked the collectors to upload the photos of the completed toilets along with the beneficiaries and locations. He also asked the officials to specify the location of the toilets with latitude and longitude marks.
Development commissioner R Balakrishnan instructed the collectors to form special teams and carry forward the work in a mission mode. Rural development secretary Madhusudan Padhi outlined the issues for discussion and clarified the points relating to ground level implementation of these projects under Swachh Bharat Mission.
Around `598 crore will be released to all the districts for the purpose.
