KUPWARA, AUGUST 21: Union Secretary Drinking Water & Sanitation, Parameshwaran Iyer today convened a meeting of officers here to review the status of drinking water and sanitation in the district and overall performance under Transformation of Aspirational District Scheme of the Government of India.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, BVR Subramanyam, Secretary to Government PHE & I&FC Department, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Special DG Projects, Director Rural Sanitation, ADDC Kupwara, SE Hydraulic, Handwara/Kupwara, JD Planning Kupwara, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Exen PHE Division Kupwara and Handwara, District Information Officer Kupwara, ACD & ACR Kupwara.
The District Development Commissioner made a detailed presentation in which he highlighted the overall progress achieved under the Scheme. He informed the meeting that district Kupwara had already achieved ODF status by constructing 98782 toilet complexes.
Secretary complimented the District Administration on this significant achievement and emphasized that the sustainability of the ODF status was an equally important activity. He directed the DDC to urgently get physical verification and geo-tagging completed of the assets created and use all the communication and publicity machinery at his disposal to spread the message of Swachh Bharat Mission among the public at large.
DC informed the meeting that the percentage of households with individual household latrines in the district is 100 percent and 90 percent of schools have functional girl’s toilets and the remaining will be covered with next four weeks. At the same time, 98.72% assets have been geotagged and the remaining 1.28% shall be geo-tagged within this week.
He further informed the meeting that 20 sites have been identified for Solid Liquid Waste Management and eight Projects are underway.
Regarding profile of drinking water, the DC informed the chair that out of a total of 1050 habitations, 519 have been fully covered and 525 are partially covered, and the percentage of schools with functional drinking water facility is 91 percent with work going on in full swing to achieve full coverage.
DC said that the normal allocation under NRDWP will not be sufficient to achieve the planned targets under the Aspirational District programme and fast track interventions are needed to ride over the gaps in resources for target achievement in time bound manner.
The meeting was also apprised that out of a total of 47 Water Filtration Plants in Kupwara and Handwara, 14 are functional, 10 semi-functional, 16 non-functional with an estimated requirement of Rs 5.30 crores towards revamping of FPs.
DC highlighted various issues and demands including revival of O&M component for Aspirational Districts, approval of four regional Water Supply Schemes for Kupwara, state of the art Water Testing Lab for Kupwara and capacity building of field staff.
He announced Rs 50 crore for uncovered habitations, Rs 3 crore for Water Testing Lab, and assured financial assistance for regional Water supply schemes and revamping of filtration plants. He directed concerned to submit DPRs regarding four regional Water Supply Schemes as soon as possible.
Later the Secretary along with Chief Secretary and officers visited Zangli and inspected various individual household toilets constructed under SBM, interacted with the people, offered a patient hearing to their issues and demands. He instructed the district administration to address the issues and demands raised by the people on priority basis.
