Toilets built under scheme being used to tether goats

In a not so surprising revelation, it was learnt that only about 48,000 toilets, out of the 1.4 lakh toilets constructed under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, is being put to use in Chamarajanagar district.

The toilets, which were constructed to ensure that the country was open defecation free, is being used to tether goats and sheep, and in other cases, also as a warehouse.
The matter came to light during a meeting of Centrally sponsored schemes, chaired by MP R Dhruvanarayan, here on Saturday.

60,000 toilets

During the meeting, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat, K H Narasimhamurthy said that the Centre had set a deadline of 2018, for the completion of construction of toilets under the scheme.

“Considering that we have about two lakh BPL families, an action plan has been chalked out at all gram panchayat levels, to implement the same. He said that the Zilla Panchayat has planned to construct 60,000 toilets during the current financial year,” he said.

Chief Planning Officer, C H Vasundaradevi said that the Zilla Panchayat had a target of constructing 16,600 toilets in 2013-14, out of which 14,800 had been completed. For 2014-15, the target was 27,064 toilets, of which 10,287 had been completed, he said.

Dhruvanarayan said that officials of departments concerned should work in tandem to ensure that rural areas of the district is open defecation free within the next four years.
“More stress should be given for the construction of toilets in schools. There are private institutions that have come forward to build toilets in schools. We should make use of the funds donated by private enterprises for the same,” he said.