No more subsidy for constructing toilets in Haryana: Govt

The Haryana government will no more give subsidy for constructing toilets but would provide incentives to village panchayats and municipal corporations for maintaining cleanliness, officials said in Guru Gram on Wednesday. Additional Chief Secretary of Rural Development Department Navraj Sandhu said efforts will be made to change the mindset of the people so that they could feel the need to have a toilet in their

households and use them to avoid ill effects of open defecation. She said that now the government is no more going to give Rs 12,000 for construction of toilets, instead incentives will be given to village panchayats for maintaining cleanliness. Earlier, people constructed toilets in their households by availing the benefit but never used it, Sandhu said. Now, the most overall clean and functional public toilet at district level will get an award of Rs 10,000 each month under Swarn Jayanti Award for Sanitation.One clean place can become learning laboratory for other neighboring localities, Sandhu added.  Quoting Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, she said he wants "Haryana villages should not only be open defecation free but should also look clean".For this, he has announced incentives for village panchayats as rewards, she said.

Sandhu said the government has fixed target of making all districts of Haryana open defecation free by December next year and eight districts including Gurgaon would be made open defecation free by November 1 this year. 

Out of 210 panchayats, 149 panchayats of Gurgaon district have already declared that they are open defecation free, which is highest in this division.

Sandhu asked Deputy Commissioners to work out a strategy for urban areas as well because rural areas will meet the target but urban slums and migratory population are a big challenge especially in big cities like Gurgaon and Faridabad. 

Sandhu was addressing the Divisional Workshop on open defecation free strategy for Swachh Haryana organised by Development and Panchayat Department Haryana, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Government of India and Water and Sanitation Program of World Bank Group.