Berhampur: In a bid to make this city free of open defecation, the civic body has decided to repair the defunct community toilets and handover their maintenance to the self-help groups (SHG), a report said Saturday.
The decision was taken during a meeting held at the conference hall of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation. Local MLA Ramesh Chandra Chayu Patnaik handed over the work orders to the SHGs Saturday.
As per the work order, the SHG groups will take over the management of the toilets from July 1 and ensure their proper maintenance to make the city open defecation free, the MLA said.
The civic body will provide Rs 1, 500 to each SHG for maintenance of ten seat-based toilets. It would provide Rs 1, 000 per every additional toilet seat if the number increases in a community toilet.
The SHG groups receiving the work orders will have to undergo a training programme June 27 and 28 on effective management of toilets by the civic body.
The initiative is part of the ODF campaign that was launched May 13 by BMC. As part of this drive, all the toilets lying defunct in the city will be repaired and put to use within a period of one month. The renovated toilets will be handed over to the SHG groups and made operational.
In the first phase, nine SHG groups have been given the work orders to manage six community toilets and three hybrid toilets as well as their maintenance.
These community toilets are in ward no-3, ward no-10, ward no-11, ward no-16, ward no-18, ward no-36 and the hybrid toilets are in ward no-7 , ward no-10 and ward no-12.
The nominated SHGs have been asked to manage and supervise the construction works of these toilets.
Mayor K Madhavi, Subhash Moharana, chairman Berhampur Development Authority (BDA), executive engineer Basant Padhi, corporators Rakesh Sahu and Duryodhan Sahu were present in the work order presentation ceremony.
PNN