Nellore: Better sanitation plan to thrust burden on villagers

Nellore: People of 92 villages where Manam-Mana Parisubhratha programme is implemented in the district are forced to bear a minimum of Rs. 1.32 crore for maintaining sanitation and converting garbage into compost. The state government does not bear the expenditure, but the local people have to pay at Rs. 360 per each household for the next 6 months (Rs 60 per month per house).

The programme will be implemented from Monday up to Nov 30 this year where each household must pay Rs.2 per day for the next six months. The Government had planned the programme on the pilot basis and would be implemented in other places later.

There are 46 mandals in the district and the government picked two villages from each mandal for implementing the programme. They selected small villages where households would be between 400 and 500 for easy implementation.

The required staff members have been trained and their salaries would be managed from the user charges collected from the villagers. The programme will be monitored by the MPDOs, and Extension Officers of the Panchayat Raj. Sanitation workers collect garbage from the households and convert it as compost and clean local canals.

"The programme is being maintained on a pilot basis. We have selected two villages per mandal and the sanitation teams collect Rs. 2 per day from each household as user charges. Initially, salaries of the Green Ambassadors are being paid under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarazgar Yojana (SGSY) and the Gram Panchayats continue the work after observing results," said a senior official from the Zilla Parishad.

The total burden for 400 families for six months for 92 villages is around Rs. 1.32 crore and it would be Rs. 1.65 crore in the case of a village with 500 families.

"They cannot pay monthly charges of Rs. 60 which is equal to their power bill in a small village. Maintaining sanitation and other health-related activities are the responsibilities of the local bodies,'' said K Sahadevaiah, head of a non-government organisation.