Govt to build toilets for 55,000 households in UT

Puducherry, Jun 30: Puducherry government has drawn up a massive Rs 120 crore plan to build toilets for 55,000 households in the union territory without the facility under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said here today.

The CM said he had urged the Prime Minister to make available the funds for the toilet scheme during his recent visit to Delhi and he had responded positively to his plea.

The purpose of providing the facility was to ensure that Puducherry emerged a clean city, he said, adding that the scheme would be implemented by October 2. Municipalities, department of rural development,District and Rural Development Agency and also the Cooperative Building Centres would jointly implement the scheme on a war footing, the Chief Minister said.

He was speaking after handing over 20 kg rice each to ration card holders free of cost in neighboring Abishegapakkam village. The CM alleged that the previous AINRC government had not properly implemented the free rice scheme. They had shown interest only in the run up to the May 16 Assembly polls and beneficiaries were not getting 10 kg rice per month regularly.

The 20 kg rice distributed to the families today was due for the last two months, he said, adding his government's promise was to make this quantity of rice available free of cost from August. As much as Rs 20 crore would be spent each month to implement the free rice scheme, which would cover around 3.3 lakh families coming under the Public Distribution System.

He also detailed the infrastructure facilities planned by the government for rural areas. The CM said he found no difficulty in getting the Union government's cooperation for launching welfare oriented programmes in the union territory.

PTI