MAKE TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN A MASS MOVEMENT:CM

MAKE TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN A MASS MOVEMENT:CM

DHARMSHALA--28 Febuary---Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, exhorted the panchayati raj institutions, NGOs and public in general to completely dedicate themselves to the Total Sanitation Campaign for ensuring its resounding success to help build a strong and healthy society. He was addressing the members of panchayati raj institutions of district Kangra on the inaugural ceremony of the two-days workshop on Total Sanitation Campaign in the district organized by the District Rural Development Agency in collaboration with the World Sanitation Campaign at Dharamshala today.Chief Minister said that unhygienic conditions had been responsible in giving birth to various dreaded ailments as there were over 260 crore people in the world who were in the habit of open defecation. He said that the figure of the country also stood at about 70 crore which was too alarming for the country with a population of over 100 crore. He said that the situation would further worsen if the proper sanitation was not adopted by the people encouraging birth of many physical health hazards. He said that the condition in the urban areas was worrisome compared to the rural areas. He said that if immediate attention was not paid to resolve the crisis the condition was bound to deteriorate further which would definitely be an impediment in building a healthy and strong society. He expressed concern over the over population and corruption in successful implementation of the campaign, which needed to be curbed with the association of the social workers and masses in general.Prof. Dhumal said that panchyati raj institutions, non-governmental organizations and social workers could play pivotal role in creation of mass awareness about the benefits of total sanitation campaign. He said that all such organizations needed to educate people, encourage them to construct toilets in their homes so that the environment was not polluted. He said that the open defecation had been responsible for polluting the water resources which carry the insects to the houses of the residents giving birth to various health problems. He said that the public representatives needed to visit the people and educate them about the benefits of the campaign for which various incentives and technical know was being made available by the experts. Chief Minister emphasized the need to change the mind set of the people towards the misconceptions of the practice and motivate them to come forward for adoption of the campaign in a big way so that not only urban but rural areas of the state could be made neat and clean, free from all the diseases. He said that the mother nature has blessed the state with immense natural wealth and best climatic conditions would could be helpful in protection of the society from various ailments supplemented by the adoption of total sanitation campaign by the people. He congratulated the best gram panchayats of the district which had implemented the campaign successfully and recommended for the ‘Nirmal Puruskar’ of the Government of India and hoped that they would inspire others to follow their path.Chief Minister honoured the Pradhans of Gram panchayats Simbal Khoula and Saliana in Panchrukhi development block; Rehan and Jachh in Nurpur; Jaangal in Nagrota Surian; Kathgarh in Indora’ Haar and Pragpur in Pragpur; Ban Ghiyar in Bhawarna which had been recommended for inclusion in the recommendations made by the state in the list of 454 gram panchayats for ‘Nirmal Puruskar’ of the Government of India. He also announced a grant of Rs. 5000 to the Kala Jatha which presented a message giving cultural programme about the campaign on the occasion.Shri K.K.Pant, Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of DTDA, welcomed the Chief Minister and apprised him of the contents of the campaign. He said that Rs. 16.28 crore would be spent under the programme in the district by year 2013. He said that the awareness was being created through the educational institutions, aanganwari kendras and community centres to educate masses about the campaign. He said that out of the total of 2.85 lakh families in the district 81,000 had adopted the sanitation programme and efforts were afoot to achieve the target by the targetted period.Smt. Mamta, Additional Deputy Commissioner, proposed vote of thanks and assured the Chief Minister that close monitoring of the implementation of the scheme would be ensured at all level.Dr. Ajit Kumar, South Asian Head of the World Sanitation Campaign said that development was closely linked with the sanitation of the countries. He said that countries with good sanitation facilities had progressed much speedily compared to the others having low sanitation facilities. He said that money spent on medicines and treatment of the same could be saved if total sanitation was adopted by the people and quality of improved with quality drinking water and hygienic facilities availability.Shri Yogendra Singh Danny, Pradhan, Gram Panchayat, Pragpur, shared his experiences with the participants about the total sanitation campaign in the district.Shri Ravinder Ravi, IPH Minister, Shri Kishan Kapoor, Transport Minister, Capt. Atma Ram and Shri Sanjay Kumar, MLAs, Shri Des Raj Bagi, Chairman, Zila Parishad, Kangra, Shri J.R.Thakur, DIG, South Range and other senior officers and participants from different panchayats were present on the occasion.