From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Apr 26: As many as 121 village panchayats selected from different districts of Karnataka were presented with the Government of India’s National Award, Nirmal Gram Puraskar-2010, for achieving total sanitation in their jurisdictional areas on Tuesday April 26.
The prestigious awards were presented by Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj at a function got up at the Glass House of Raj Bhavan in Bangalore.
Congratulating the village panchayat presidents, secretaries and members on the occasion, Bhardwaj said that Karnataka was serious of achieving sanitation and hoped that it would meet the national target also.
If the villages were not developed and not provided with clean environment, Mahatma Gandhiji’s vision of building a welfare state could not be fulfilled, he said.
Karnataka’s Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar Jagadish Shettar said he was sad that villagers were not enthusiastic in constructing toilets and it was the responsibility of the 92,000 village panchayat members to convince them to build it.
He was surprised that 65 crore mobile sets were in use across the country and one could see even an agricultural labourer keeping a cell phone. The same person demands more subsidy and is not happy at the Rs 3,000 given by the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
Shettar said that religious leaders with their tremendous influence on the village folk could guide people to build toilets and maintain sanitation in their surroundings.
He was happy that sanitation programme was gaining popularity in a backward district like Koppal where 21 villages got Nirmal Gram Puraskar. He wanted more villages in Hyderabad and Mumbai Karnataka regions to utilise subsidy for toilets and sanitation programme.
With a view to ending the unhealthy practice of answering nature’s call in the open, the state government is implementing total sanitation mission since 2005 culminating in 2012.
Under the programme, the award-winning villages have built toilets and the people were made to use them. The roads and surroundings of schools and anganavadis and public places were made litter-free and drains stench-free, a press release claimed.
An amount of Rs 977.24 crore has been spent for the period and out of 58.70 lakh families, 37.24 lakh families have built toilets, achieving 63 per cent progress.
All the schools and anganavadis were provided with toilets. A total of 966 village panchayats and four taluk panchayats achieved total sanitation since 2005 and they have been given prize money ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh.
Similarly, under the state government`s programme, 127 VPs, 88 schools and 82 anganavadis had been honoured with prizes totalling Rs 4.91 crore.
Karnataka’s Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar, Principal Secretary P Ravi Kumar and Governor’s Secretary G V Krishna Rau participated in the function.
Ganadhal Village Panchayat President Nagaraja from Koppal District spoke on behalf of the awardees. He said that people from different walks of life at the Grama Sabha were involved in door-to-door campaign for maintaining sanitation. The residents were reminded how some contracted Dengue and Chikun Gunya, due to pollution. They spend thousands of rupees on marriages and other family functions but were not ready to take construction of a basic and essential necessity like toilet in their homes, he said