Each MP village to be linked with sanitation campaign

Bhopal, May 17 (UNI) Under the Nirmal Gram project, every village in Madhya Pradesh would be linked with a Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) this fiscal.

''The number of beneficiary families will be 10 lakh. Lack of awareness and inadequate interest evinced by district collectors deprived TSC of expected success but it is now being implemented on priority basis,'' Secretary (Public Health Engineering) Rakesh Agrawal told reporters here today.

Meetings involving the state's nine divisions and every collector took place and directives issued for ensuring public participation.

''Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have undertaken commendable work in the direction of TSC. Sanitation facilities were made available in 24,933 of this state's 56,583 schools. A sum of Rs 148.31 crore was obtained out of the allocation of Rs 422.55 crore,'' he added.

Sanitary parks have come up at Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur with UNICEF cooperation and such facilities are being constructed at district level. Indore district's Bachhod village panchayat attiuned the TSC target.

''Rewa district's Dadar (West), Bachhod and Vidisha's Parvatpur village panchayat bagged first, second and third spots in TSC work and will receive Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively,'' Mr Agrawal added.

Potable water was being transported to 89 villages reeling under a crisis.

''Of 3.64 lakh rural handpumps, more than 45,000 are non-functional and of the latter 30,000 have run dry. As per a 2003 survey, about 30,000 habitations -- of the total 1,26,172 -- have defunct potable water sources,'' the official revealed.

Roof harvesting has been made compulsory for schools and hospitals.

UNI AG-AC KD RN2234