Date:10/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/10/stories/2008041051450300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Take steps to achieve total sanitation, village panchayats told

Staff Reporter

Cooperation of people sought to reach 100 per cent

Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

For the people: Collector N. Mathivanan receiving petition from a villager during a mass contact programme at Asambur in Yercaud on Wednesday. —

YERCAUD: All the village panchayats in the district should initiate efforts to achieve total sanitation, Collector N. Mathivanan has said.

Participating in the special mass contact programme held at Asambur village near here on Wednesday, he said that the Government was implementing Total Sanitation Campaign to improve the rural sanitation.

People should take full advantage of the scheme and cooperate with the local bodies to achieve 100 per cent sanitation in the rural areas.

The district administration recommended the Asambur village to the Union Government for the Nirmal Gram Puraskar Award to achieve total sanitation, he added.

Mr. Mathivanan assured that the administration would complete the formation of a road connecting the Asambur village this fiscal. It had given approval to lay the road to the village in 2005 itself. But the contractor, who took up the work, did not complete it.

The Collector said that he would allot a sum of Rs. 6 lakh from his discretionary funds to complete the road formation.

He also assured that the administration would establish a crematorium in the village. A total of three acres had already been allotted for creating the facility. Steps had been initiated to acquire a private land to lay an approach road to the crematorium.

The administration would request the Adi Dravidar and tribal Welfare department to allot funds to create the facility within the current fiscal, he added.

District Rural Development Agency Project Officer D. Jagannathan, Mahalir Thittam Project Officer BRK Ramesh, Joint Director of Agriculture K. Janagan, Deputy Director of Horticulture Dasarathan, District Social Welfare Officer Baby Geethanjali, Deputy Director of Health J. Nirmalson and senior officials were present.