E-Paper
Tarn Taran declared state’s first open-defecation free border district
The deputy commissioner (DC) Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal announced that Union government has declared Tarn Taran as the first open-defecation free border district.
Among 13 open-defecation free districts of Punjab, Tarn Taran has been declared as the first open-defecation free border district by the Union government. This was announced by the deputy commissioner (DC) Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal during a function organised in Tarn Taran on Friday.
Out of five border districts of Punjab,Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Fazilka and Ferozepur, which are covering approximately 553 km of international borders with Pakistan, only Tarn Taran has been declared ODF.
Sabharwal said, “Under the Union government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, we have declared the district’s all 549 villages ODF.” The administration had received a grant of ₹20 crore, out of which ₹14 cores was distributed in three instalments of ₹5,000 each in the villages. The amount was distributed at different stages of completion monitored by the village-level gram panchayat water and sanitation committee, he said.
“People have constructed toilets, which has reduced in undue profits that used to go in the pockets of contractors. With this, the open area around villages have become clean, reducing the spread of diseases,” said the DC.
As per the baseline survey, as many as 44,481 toilets were to be constructed in the district. Of those, more than 40,000 units have been constructed and the rest will be completed within a month, said the DC.
