50% toilet-construction target completed in JK

Srinagar, Feb 20: The Rural Sanitation department of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government has achieved 50% of the target of constructing the toilets in the rural areas of the state under various schemes since 2013, said an official.
As per the official, target would be completed by the end of October 2018.
Director Rural Sanitation, Mohammad Nazir Sheikh, said that at the time of baseline survey conducted in 2013, 14,87,548 families were found without the toilet facility.
“Earlier, the construction of washrooms was undertaken under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), but since October 2, 2014, the construction of washrooms has been undertaken under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (SBM),” he said.
Commenting on the washrooms constructed under NBA and TSA, he said 80,564 households were covered up to September 2014.
Sheikh said that success rate of 23% was achieved by the department till October 2, 2014.
“Total households covered including having the toilets as on October 2014 under NBA were 3,43,328,” he said.
Sheikh said that 11,44,220 households were without toilets at the time, when SMB was launched in October 2014.
“As on February, under SBM, 4,10,212 households were covered. The success rate at present stands at 50%,” he said.
Sheikh said they have been doing everything possible to provide washroom faculty to every household.
“We have to construct toilets in far-off places. 13,700 photographs have been uploaded. In future more photographs would be uploaded,” he said.
Asked about the cost of the washrooms, he said, “A single washroom is constructed at a cost Rs 12000.”
“We are committed to complete the construction of remaining washrooms by the end of October 2018,” he said.
He Kargil, Leh and Srinagar have been declared Open Defacation Free, along with 514 villages and 302 gram panchayats.