Campaign to popularise toilet scheme launched in Salem

The Salem Corporation is going all out to popularise the scheme for construction of individual toilets with government subsidy in all households in the city under the Clean India Mission with the objective of doing away with open defecation.

The corporation has launched a mobile campaign vehicle with a replica of individual toilet for creating awareness among the city residents on this programme. R. Sadheesh, Corporation Commissioner, flagged off the vehicle on Wednesday.

Mr. Sadheesh said that people can construct individual toilets at an outlay of Rs. 12,000, for which government extended a subsidy of Rs. 8,000. The main objective of the corporation is to do-away with the open-defecation in the city limits with the active cooperation of the public.

Besides the replica of the individual toilet, flex boards explaining the salient features of the Clean India Mission programme, the importance and advantages of individual toilets and the harmful effects of open defecation have been displayed prominently on the campaign vehicle. The vehicle will cover different parts of the city from dawn-to-dusk.

Mr. Sadheesh said that the corporation has already pressed into service more than 30 field staff to create awareness about the project. Field workers led by a coordinator and four supervisors will be visiting different wards daily and convince and motivate the people to construct individual toilets with subsidy. The corporation has also taken special steps for the distribution of applications to the people for the construction of individual toilets. People can collect the applications from the main office and from the zonal offices, and also from the field staff under the Clean India Mission. The filled-up applications could be handed over to the field staff themselves.

The Commissioner also called upon the people who had already constructed toilets to construct septic tank for flushing out the waste water and human excreta.

A. Ashok and G. Kamaraj, corporation executive engineers, and V. Prabhakaran, City Health Officer, were present on the occasion.