Over 2,000 houses in DK have no toilets, says ZP chief

Zilla Panchayat President Meenakshi Shanthogodu has claimed that over 2,000 households in the district do not have toilets.

Her statements runs contrary to the official statistics, according to which, only 605 households in Dakshina Kannada do not have toilet facilities.

Speaking at the Zilla Panchayat general meeting on Saturday, she said that a separate meeting to discuss the Swaccha Bharat Mission will be convened shortly.

Janardhan Gowda, president of the Zilla Panchayat standing committee on social justice, said, “Although it has won awards and accolades in sanitation, the district is lagging behind in cleanliness and sanitation. Unless we take the issue seriously, there is no way to move ahead. Also, in spite of Dakshina Kannada having a full-fledged Swacha Bharath Mission wing, we have failed in implementing the Mission effectively.”

Member Koragappa Naik said, “The toilets for the households that were included in the baseline survey of 2004 are yet to be completed.

“It is either the gram panchayats or Swaccha Bharath Mission that has failed to furnish accurate statistics on the houses without toilets. Even after social audit survey highlighted the lack of toilet facilities, we have failed to consider the issue seriously. As a part of observing World Toilet Day, each gram panchayat has spent money for visiting the households. Unfortunately, we have failed to construct toilets for households.”

Further, he said 32 households in Olamogru and over 100 in Shirthadi do not have toilets.

Displaying the video of garbage littered all over the road in a village that was honoured for taking up excellent work on the occasion of World Toilet Day, Zilla Panchayat Member Chandraprakash Shetty demanded to know the parameters considered while selecting a gram panchayat in each taluk to honour it for effective implementation of a series of programmes held for World Toilet Day.

Member Mamatha Gatti said funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) can be utilised for the construction of toilets.

CEO Selvamani said that the ZP has written to the MGNREGS Commissioner seeking direction on the use of the funds for toilet construction.

Member Vinod Kumar complained that overflow of sewage from apartments in Haleyangady is inconveniencing the residents.

When members raised the issue of damage of optical fibre cables used by gram panchayat and the work causing inconvenience to the public, Selvamani directed the BSNL officials to ensure that optical fibre cables are set right within a day.

He also directed the Food and Civil Supplies Department officials to submit details on fair price shops using 2G BSNL connectivity to upgrade it for 3G connectivity.