LUDHIANA – Nearly 19.5 per cent of the total population has no access to close-toilets in Punjab. This was revealed in a survey conducted by the Census Department. For answering nature’s call, this underprivileged section of the society has to go in the open.
Data available with the Census Department states that Ludhiana district is on top where maximum percentage of population has an access to close-toilets. An official in the Census department disclosed that 94 per cent of the population in Ludhiana district use close-toilets to answer nature’s call while just 6 per cent were forced to go in the open. The worst condition is in Gurdaspur district where 39 per cent of the population continue to go in the open.
The state government gets funds from the Centre to construct toilets through different schemes. But that amount is too less as compared to the cost of construction of a toilet in Punjab. Through the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Toilet Scheme, the state government gets an amount of Rs 60,000 to construct toilets. But the amount, being too small, was returned without being utilised. NABARD sanctions Rs 10,000 per toilet, while the cost of construction of a toilet in Punjab is about Rs 14,000 (including the labour). Through the Rural Development Department, Punjab, panchayats were provided Rs 10,000 for each toilet and under the scheme, about 20,000 toilets have been constructed in the state so far. Besides, two agencies including the PWD and the Mandi Board were given Rs 60 lakh per constituency for construction of toilets by the state government, under which 400 toilets have been constructed so far in Punjab.
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