Bhubaneswar, May 27 : Odisha government directed all Collectors to complete Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) targets for 2016-17 as per schedule under the Swachha Bharat Mission for which Rs 598 crore will be released soon for the current fiscal.
Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised the Collectors during a video conference held at State Secretariat to constitute special teams and carry forward the work in a mission mode.
The Collectors were told that funds to the tune of Rs 598 core for 2016-17 would be released soon for the projects.
Rural Development Secretary Madhusudan Padhi outlined the issues for discussion and clarified the points relating to ground level implementation of these projects.
He informed the Collectors that the government is actively considering a system for third Party evaluation of the open defecation free (ODF) villages, changes in habits of the people and use of toilets there and advised them to ensure self certification from the concerned ODF village, GP or block.
The inter-block certification would be done by District Water & Sanitation Committee. Padhi asked the Collectors to upload the photos of the completed toilets along with its beneficiary and location.
They were asked to specify the location of the toilets with latitude and longitude marks.
Notably, a total 13, 29,932 toilets have been constructed during the financial year in all the districts against over and above the target of 12,00,000 which was 111 per cent.
Twenty districts such as 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 while the other 10 districts achieved around 90 pe target, officials said.
They said the target was to complete 26 lakh toilets during 2016-17 with funds from Centre and State ast 60:40 ratio.
Engineer in Chief Rural Development Department Bhagban Sahoo, Chief Engineer Dillip Pradhan, Chief Executive of Water & Sanitation Mission Abhaya Biswal, Joint Director Planning & Coordination Sri Jayanta kumar Mishra were among those present during the video conference.
