Impose penalties on households lacking sink pits, Individual Household Latrines

Wanaparthy: Commercial Taxes Commissioner Neetu Prasad, as part of inspection of works taken under Palle Pragathi programme in the villages of Revally mandal of Wanaparthy district, visited various villages and took stock of the situation.

The Commissioner who is as part of Palle Pragathi flying squad to inspect the works taken up under the Palle Pragathi programme, along with Wanaparthy District Collector Sheik Yasmin Basha, visited the villages of Chennaram and Nagapuram and inspected the village nurseries, drainage systems, roads, dumping yards, lakes and burial grounds being taken up under the programme.

While visiting the Chennaram village, Neetu Prasad inspected a dumping yard established very close to the village that too near a village tank. She objected to this and directed the concerned village secretary and the Sarpanch to look out for an alternative location for the dumping yard. "Dumping yards must be set up far away from residential houses on the outskirts and they should not be near to any water bodies. Similarly, we also found that lot of villagers are using the plastic glasses, polythene covers and plastic plates. This needs to be contained at the village level to save the environment," observed the official.

Earlier, at a programme organised at the local primary school, the District Collector and village Sarpanch Ramesh felicitated Neetu Prasad with a shawl and a garland. Speaking on the occasion, the village Sarpanch said that they have decided to distribute dustbins to every household in the village. However, as the number of dustbins were less than those of the households, he said they have temporarily halted the programme and urged the District Collector to allocate more dustbins so that they can take up the distribution in the next one or two days.

Later, Neetu Prasad who visited Nagapuram village found that the household drain was released onto the roads. Taking note of this, the Commissioner directed the concerned Panchayat secretary to penalise those households who deliberately release household drains on the roads. She also directed the village authorities to immediately construct Kachha drains wherever there are no drains from the village funds and ensure that all the drains in the villages be connected to drainage systems and not to allow them on roads.

She also found that the low-lying areas in the villages were not having sink pits and a few of the households also not having individual latrines. She directed the village authorities to immediately take up the construction of Individual Household Latrines and ensure sink pits. She also directed the officials to not hesitate to penalise the households that do fail to keep their surroundings clean and neat.