The first of the monthly sanitation conferences organised by the District Suchitwa Mission will be held at the Collectorate Conference Hall in Kozhikode on May 25.
The conference, which will be held every month, will review the progress of sanitation projects of local bodies.
“We allot around ₹10 lakh to every panchayat to set up public waste management systems. Besides, it is mandatory that a local body set aside 10% of its annual Plan fund for waste management. But rarely does anything happen after all this planning,” said Kripa Warrier, Programme Officer of District Suchitwa Mission, adding that only 25 panchayats in the district effectively utilised the fund allotted for the construction of Material Collection Facility (MCF).
The purpose of the sanitation conference is to speed up waste management programmes at the grassroots level.
“It is necessary to exert some level of pressure on local bodies to ensure that sanitation plans do not remain on paper,” said C. Kabani, District Mission Coordinator of Suchitwa Mission.