Col. Dr. Dhani Ram Shandil, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister said that Shimla was first city in Himachal Pradesh to develop 'City Sanitation Plan' which was approved by the State Government besides Decentralized Waste Water Treatment Technology was also implemented in some areas of Shimla town. He was speaking in the review meeting of various departments regarding development and implementation of cleanliness and sanitation programme in urban and rural areas of the State here today. Col. Shandil said that 1011 panchayats of the State had been declared as 'Nirmal Panchayats' besides Ghumarwin Block in district Bilaspur was adjudged as 'Nirmal Block'.
Col. Shandil said that a project to the tune of Rs. 165.68 crore had been submitted to Government of India (GoI) for construction of toilets and solid and liquid waste management in rural areas. He said that for constructing toilets in rural areas, Rs. 5100 for households, Rs. 38500 for schools, Rs. 10,000 for Anganwaris centres and rupees two lakh for constructing community toilets were being provided under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan Programme.
Stressing upon the need of adopting advance technology for constructing toilets in rural areas, the Minister said that cross linkage of sewerage pipes with drinking water supply pipes should be avoided as it could contaminate the drinking water and lead to ailments. He directed the officers to accomplish schemes on priority basis before initiating work on new projects and schemes and also to ensure proper utilization of funds for timely completion of the developmental projects.
Col. Shandil stressed on capacity evaluation, capacity upgradation of existing agencies and proper monitoring for avoiding over-lapping of funds being spent by various agencies for effective implementation of sanitation programme to achieve the goal of Green and Clean Himachal.
Shri P.C. Dhiman, Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri M.P. Sood, Additional Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr. Sandeep Bhatnagar, Special Secretary, Education, Mrs. Madhu Sharma, Director, Women and Child Development, Shri Rajeev Sharma, Special Secretary, Rural Development, Shri R.K. Sharma, Engineer in Chief, I&PH, Shri Deva Singh Negi, Additional Director, Urban Development and other senior officers of the State Government were present in the meeting.