DK: No toilet facility in 2K houses!

• Special meeting to be called for to discuss on the problem

Mangaluru: According to the government’s report, there are only 600 houses without toilet facilities in Dakshina Kannda (DK) district; however in reality, there are more 2,000 houses in the district which lack basic facilities!

This information was given by ZP president Meenakshi at DK GP General Meeting held here on Saturday.

The government’s report is not correct. The opinion of the ZP administration and the opposition is that there are more families suffering due to the lack of toilets than the information which is available with the department. Taking notice of this issue, a special meeting to take a decision on the issue will be called for soon, said the president.

Stats committee Janardhan Gowda, president of the Zilla Panchayat standing committee on social justice, said, “The DK district has won awards and praise in sanitation but, it 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.”

“Of the houses with a lack of basic sanitation in the district, about 80% of them belong to the SC/ST group,” he added.

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.”

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

Expansion of 3G network

ZP CEO directed BSNL officials to provide 3G network facility to fair price shops. Also responding to the ZP members concern on to damage of optical fibre cables used by gram panchayat and the work causing inconvenience to the public, the CEO Selvamani directed the BSNL officials to ensure that optical fibre cables are set right within a day.

Report against KRIDL

KRIDL official spoke at the meeting and informed that there is a plan for 102 purified drinking water units in the district of which, 80 units have already started and the remaining will be started within the coming 15 days. However, the members expressed their reservations and said that KRIDL is not giving complete information, officials are failing to attend to meeting properly and the unit have been started inadequately, they complained. Therefore it was decided that a report will be sent to the government in this regard.