'Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan' initiated in Udupi district

The central government sponsored programme ‘Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan’ replacing the earlier total sanitation campaign has been initiated in five places in the district.

ZP CEO Prabhakar Sharma told Deccan Herald that under the programme, around Rs 20 lakh will be given to each of the concerned Gram Panchayat and through Gram Panchayats the funds will be released to the areas that have been chosen.

He said the government has approved the proposals recommending the implementation of the programme in Uppunda, Brahmavar, Kaup, 80-Badagabettu and Hebri. However, another proposal to implement the programme in Kumbhashi was temporarily dropped following insufficient land, he added.

He said the target was to reach out to nearly 15 Gram Panchayats in the district. However, the Department has not received any proposals from these GPs.

There are 146 GPs in the district and around 107 have won ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar.’ Nearly 39 GPs are yet to receive the award.

Out of which, 27 GPs are in Kundapur taluk and 12 are in Udupi taluk. Karkala taluk has received taluk level Nirmal Gram Puraskar with all its 29 GPs being awarded with Nirmal Gram Purskar.

ZP Assistant Project Officer Uday Shetty said that there are several components under Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan.

The new programme came into existence in April 2012. Priority is given for the construction of toilets, wherein a beneficiary holding BPL card is given Rs 4,700 to construct toilet. In addition, the beneficiary is also entitled to get an additional sum of Rs 4,500 under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

 However, people are ignorant on the  additional amount and they do not come forward to avail the benefits. He said that around 4078 households were given funds under Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan to construct toilets in 2012-13.

Besides, schools and anganawadi centres are also entitled to avail the benefits. In Udupi district the schools and anganawadis operating in own buildings all have toilet facilities.

The programme benefits cannot be extended to the schools and anganawadi functioning in the rented building. Around Rs 35,000 will be given to the schools to construct toilets.

The programme also extends the benefits to the construction of community toilets, wherein Rs 2 lakh is estimated as unit cost.

The government will release Rs 1.80 lakh and remaining should be borne by the concerned Gram Panchayat.

Conditions

Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan programme is restricted to BPL card holders only. Also, the beneficiary APL card holder should belong to SC/ST community, or else the household should be headed by a woman, or the family should have marginal income or the household should comprise of disabled persons, ZP Assistant Project Officer added.