Altogether 78.1 pc rural families without toilets: Patil

New Delhi, Dec 13 (UNI) As many as 63.6 per cent of households in the country do not have toilets with the figure as high as 78.1 per cent in rural areas according to the 2001 Census, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for Rural Development Suryakanta Patil, in a written reply, admitted that lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation facility was the cause of several disease though the exact share in overall diseases in the country was not available.

She said the Government had launched several initiatives to increase rural sanitation coverage including taking up Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) projects in all districts of the country through increased budgetary allocation, setting up of incentive-cum -reward scheme and Nirmal Gram Puraskar for panchayati raj institutions. So far TCS projects, launched in 1999, had been taken up in 569 districts in the country.

During 2006-07, the budgetary provision for the TSC had been kept as Rs 800 crore of which Rs 420 crore had been released, Mrs Patil said.

For above poverty line (APL) families needing assistance, soft loan were being provided through a revolving fund mechanism for construction of toilets. To step up the pace of sanitation facilities in schools and anganwadi centres, the requirement of community contribution for construction of toilets had been waived, she added.

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