LUCKNOW: The challenge to meet the target of the PM's dream project of
Swachh Bharat stares in the face of the district administration.
In 2014, a target was set to make Lucknow open defecation-free (ODF) by July 31. A total of 2 lakh
toilets were to be constructed to achieve the status.
However, according to the panchayati raj department, only 40% (80,000) toilets have been constructed as of May 31.
Going by the current status, to achieve the target of making Lucknow ODF by July 31, the administration will have to construct 2,608 toilets everyday. As the construction of a single toilet takes about four days, even if work goes on for 24 hours, the task would be impossible. As a result, Lucknow is sure to miss the ODF status bus.
While district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma has instructed speeding up the work, getting the remaining 1.2 lakh toilets ready in less than six and a half weeks is a challenge that authorities meet not be able to meet.
Managing director of Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin Akash Deep said, "A single mason takes a minimum of three days to construct one toilet. For construction of 1.2 lakh toilets by July 31, the administration will have to hire more than 8,000 masons who would need an army of labourers to work."
Deep, however, added that Lucknow had made remarkable progress in the past six months and hoped the administration would make efforts towards the target.
DM Kaushal Raj said, "We are mobilising and engaging the community to speed up work. Unemployed workers in villages where toilets are being constructed have been engaged in lieu of wages for construction. This has given us an additional workforce of about 1,000 people. Besides, additional labourers would also be hired."
The last-minute response to the task is sure to escalate the project cost. The government grants an incentive of Rs 12,000 to a household for a toilet. The allocation translates into Rs 144 crore for 1.2 lakh toilets.
"Engaging additional workers would fuel the cost drastically, arranging which will not be an easy task," said a government official.
Representative image