| Even after declaring J&K ODF, 881 latrines still incomplete | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 15: After over one and half year since Jammu and Kashmir was declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), the target of constructing individual household latrines has not been completed, putting a question mark over the claim.
The former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik on September 15, 2018 during a function in Srinagar had self declared J&K as Open Defecation Free (ODF). During the function, he had hailed the then State administration for efforts in making J&K, “100 percent ODF”.
However after the lapse of one and half year since the declaration of J&K as ODF, new date has been dished out by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to make J&K ODF free. This has put a question mark over the claim made by the then J&K Governor.
The Ministry has furnished the details about the target of constructing Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) and completion of the latrines, till March 2020.
The Jammu and Kashmir has a target of constructing a total of 51316 Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) but till March 2020, a total of 50435 have been completed, leaving 881 IHHL still incomplete.
“If 881 IHHL are still incomplete till March 2020, then where these household members would have been defecating all these months. It punctures hollow claims of the government, which was in a hurry to declare J&K as ODF”, said a source, adding that even the government data about schools with toilet facilities was not correct.
“There are many schools which have no toilets for boys and girls, whereas there are many instances where the toilets were constructed but water supply is not there, leaving the toilets unused. There were many toilets, which have become non-functional due to lack of proper maintenance beside other factors,” the source added. |
|
