Just 600 public toilets for Bengaluru's one crore populace
The southern metropolis of Bengaluru with a population of close to a crore has to make do with just 600 community and public toilets. Even the existing ones suffer from poor patronage owing to bad maintenance. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has identified 250 locations to construct toilets, mainly to cater to the needs of the city's floating population.
October deadline set for elected representatives to build toilets at home
The chief executive officer of the Vijayapura zilla parishad has asked representatives of all elected local bodies to give up defecating in the open and construct toilets at home by October end. The same applies to anganwadi and ASHA workers as well. The CEO has warned of revoking honorarium payments if workers fail to construct toilets by next month end. Anganwadi and ASHA workers will also be eligible for incentives for encouraging people to use latrines in place of open defecation.
Complete toilet access ensured in 80,000 villages
Union drinking water and sanitation minister Narendra Singh Tomar has revealed that 80,000 villages across the country have access to safe sanitation with 21 districts being declared open defecation free. As per the prime minister's orders, the government has started the identification process of 100 iconic swachh pilgrim spots across India. Assam's Kamakhya Dham, Amritsar Gold Temple and the Vaishno Devi Temple, among others, have been selected for the pilot experiment.
‘Selfie with my Shauchalya’ to boost toilet construction in Ludhiana
The Ludhiana district administration has adopted a novel initiative under which owners of clean toilets will be felicitated on October 2. The ‘Selfie with my Shauchalya’ initiative encourages people to click a selfie in their loos in a bid to promote cleanliness and everyday hygiene. With 20,000 latrines already constructed out of the target 26,107 toilets, the administration is confident of declaring the district open defecation free by the end of October 2016.
This is a roundup of important sanitation related news published between September 17-23, 2016
Lead image courtesy: The New Indian Express