Kathua all set to be declared ODF by Sept 15: DC Kathua

KATHUA, AUGUST 29: District Development Commissioner Kathua Rohit Khajuria today convened a meeting of officers to review the progress under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and (Urban). He called for mobilizing resources for making Kathua Open Defecation Free district by 15^th September 2018.

Additional District Development Commissioner, Kathua Shubra Sharma, ADC Billawar, ADC Basohli, ACD Kathua, SDM Hiranagar, SDM Bani, CEO Municipality Kathua along with EO’s of Municipalities besides Block Development Officers attended the meeting.

The DDC emphasized on geo tagging of constructed IHHL, which requires concerted efforts of RDD employees and directed BDOs of Kathua district to finish it before 5th September. He said that SBM should be a public movement and need of hour is to change the behavior of individuals and make village ODF for health benefits.

For verification of these IHHL, special teams have been constituted at Panchayat Level, Block Level and District Level to verify these IHHL as per verification sheet of SBM guidelines. For this purpose, heads of different departments including ADC, ACR, CMO, DPO, Social Welfare Officer, etc were directed to depute their officials to concerned Magistrates who shall work in a coordinate manner with officials from other departments to expedite the verification process of all Panchayats, Blocks within the specified time frame.

DDC further directed all the Magistrates and Heads of departments to gear up men and machinery for verification of IHHL before the deadline of September 10. He appreciated the role of RDD and Municipalities for the overall progress achieved under the scheme. Geo tagging of the assets has to be given impetus so that overall percentage is achieved in time bound manner, for this direction were issued to all BDO’s to devise strategy so that set target is achieved.

He gave directions regarding ODF verification process and conducting mass awareness programmes on sanitation. The DDC stressed for overall sanitation and cleanliness of the district.

It is pertinent to mention here that DDC has constituted a team of District and Block level officers to verify on ground conditions of the Toilets constructed under SBM-G for which the verification process is going on and the team constituted will submit the verification report within 10 days. Municipal Council Lakhanpur has already been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) and stood third in the Division as per the inspection conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI) in SBM-U.