The State government will construct 33 lakh (3.3. million) toilets in the next two years, announced Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar on 28 January 2010.
The drive will be taken up in villages under the “Sampoorna Svachatha Andolan” (Total Sanitation Campaign) with the help of NGOs and Stree Shakti Groups, Shettar said while participating in the “Nirmala Gram” award function at Raj Bhavan in Bangalore. It is a national award accorded to gram panchayats (village councils) for achieving total sanitation. The State government had recommended as many as 500 gram panchayats to the Centre for the award, however, only 245 were short-listed by the Union government, the minister said.
Shettar said he would discuss with the Chief Minister on the possibility of providing State awards to the remaining gram panchayats.
Bangalore rural had the maximum number of gram panchayats in the award list (40), Gulbarga and Raichur drew a blank. Governor H R Bhardwaj was also present at the award distribution ceremony.
The function was jointly organised by the Rural Department and Panchayat Raj Department and the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency.
Source: DHNS, Deccan Herald, 28 Jan 2010
