Manipur Panchayat bodies trying to achieve 100% sanitation coverage

Imphal, Oct 27 (UNI) The Panchayat bodies of Manipur are working hard to achieve full sanitation coverage in the rural areas.

The Maklang Gram Panchayat of Imphal West District had got the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, 2008, for 100 per cent sanitation coverage of Individual Households, 100 per cent School and Anganwadi Sanitation coverage, clean environment and full awareness of safe drinking water. Many more panchayat bodies are trying to achieve 100 percent coverage.

The award, carrying Rs two lakh and a citation was conferred on Heisnam Subhaschandra Singh, Pradhan of Maklang Gram Panchayat, by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on October 20 at Guwahati.

This was the first and only Gram Panchayat which received such a prestigious Award in Manipur, the information officer of Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) A Balu Sharma said.

He added that many more Gram Panchayats are expected to receive such Awards if the present trend of total sanitation campaign is continued.

The Panchayat body, about 13 km from Imphal, has eight wards and a total of 4,580 households. Number of Above Poverty Line (APL) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) households are 307 and 630 respectively.

There are seven Primary schools, three upper Primary Schools and 16 Anganwadi centres in the Gram Panchayat.

Since the launching of Total Sanitation Coverage (TSC), the Pradhan of the Gram Panchayat, through Imphal West District Water and Sanitation Committee (IWDWSC), and grassroot level workers, such as ward members, Anganwadi workers, school teachers, social workers, villagers, conducted awareness meetings from time to time.

Poster campaigns, film shows, street plays taken up by IWDWSC have got good outcome and village-level water and sanitation committees (VLWSC) for each Ward of the Panchayat were constituted and person to person contact at the household level by the members of VLWSC also started.

Other Panchayat bodies, following the success story of Maklang Gram Panchayat, are also trying hard to achieve 100 per cent sanitation.

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