Toilets a distant dream as Lakhimpur village deprived of the individual household latrines

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: At a time when crores of allotted fund have been spent for the construction of household and community toilets in Lakhimpur district under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), a village under Lakhimpur Panchayat of the district is still deprived of the individual household latrines. As a consequence, open defecation is going on unabatedly in this Gharmora-Gosai Chapori check dam village under Gosai Chapori revenue village till date, making a mockery of the Swachh Bharat Mission. This issue of concern came out while this correspondent made a spot survey in the village on Wednesday.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2 in 2014 at Rajpath in New Delhi as a nationwide movement, aiming to clean up the street, roads and infrastructure of India’s cities and rural areas. The objectives of the Mission include eliminating open defecation through the construction of household owned and community-owned toilets and establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring toilet use. The mission, being run by the Government of India, aims to achieve an open defecation free (ODF) India by October 2, 2019 on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi by constructing 90 million toilets in rural India with a projected investment of Rs. 1.96 lakh crore.

Launching the Mission throughout the length and breadth of the nation in the centrally organized programme at Rajpath, the Prime Minister stated that a clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. Since then, the activities of constructing household toilets under the Mission have been accelerated across the nation.

Under such circumstances, the lack of household latrines in Gharmora-Gosai Chapori Check dam village has turned out to be an issue of grave concern. During the survey, the villagers informed that around 45 families living below the poverty line (BPL) in the village had not been potent enough to be benefitted with household toilets under the Mission till date. Almost 10 APL families living in the village are also deprived of the same during the past period from 2014. However, two such toilets were constructed in the houses of Mahesh Das and Bimal Das around two years back but they are of no effect now. The toilet tank constructed in the front side of the household of Mahesh Das could not be used totally while the toilet constructed in the household of Bimal Das is no longer suitable to use because of its damaged condition.

In this regard, the villagers alleged lackadaisical attitude of the Lakhimpur Division of Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) which is the nodal agency for implementation of SBM household toilet construction scheme. The Panchayat office concerned has also not paid any heed to mitigate the crucial problem of the villagers. Moreover, people of the village, most of whom are marginal farmers and wage earners, are still deprived of pure drinking water.

The PHED has not taken any step to provide them pure drinking water as result of which they have to consume the impure water from Dhal Nadi, a tributary rivulet of Subansiri River. However, a deep tube well (water pump), installed by the PHED some years ago was seen in the village in non-functional condition. As a result of consuming impure water, the people of the village frequently suffer from health problems.

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