After having achieved the herculean task of declaring the district open defecation free in a record 30 days, the Warangal Urban district administration is engaged in a massive awareness campaign to put the individual sanitary latrines (ISL) to use.
At the break of dawn, the gram panchayat staff goes round the bushes on outskirts of villages carrying torch lights, blowing whistles and drumming up to scare away those trying to defecate in the open.
Speaking to The Hindu, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) project director T. Ramu said, they were elated at the completion of the target. They were supposed to complete ISLs by December 31 but they did it by November 15. “This is second district in the State to be declared ODF after Karimnagar which got the State team’s approval,” he said. According to him, of all the troubles they faced during the execution of the programme, securing the will of beneficiaries was paramount. People in many villages were not forthcoming. For instance, in Sudhanapalli village in Hasanparthy, the officials were forced to suspend ration, pensions and even disconnect power to force beneficiaries to adopt ISL. The local gram panchayats were imposing fine of ₹500 to those violating the prohibitory orders regarding open defecation.
The district administration ensured construction of 11,000 toilets in 30 days in 94 villages of six mandals. Another 11,000 toilets were already constructed under NREGS programme in the past. “Though there was a toilet in the house, people were unable to give up the habit of defecating openly, sometimes them into store rooms,” Mr. Ramu explained.
Ramu said securing men and material was tough. “We have created a Whatsapp group for officials engaged in the task. Each officer should go to respective village by 6 a.m. and upload photographs of ISLs under construction,” he said.
“District collector Amrapali and I visited 50 villages in 30 days to randomly oversee the execution,” Mr. Ramu added.