SRINAGAR: Under the chairmanship of Director Rural Sanitation J&K, Charandeep Singh, an orientation programme was today organized on Swacch Survekshan Grameen 2023 at the Institute of Hotel Management Rajbagh here.
Experts from the Government of India, Ikshvaku Sharma and Vinay Tiwari gave a detailed presentation on different stages of Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2023.
The orientation programme was attended by Assistant Commissioner Panchayats, Assistant Commissioner Development, District Panchayat Officers, Block Development Officers from Kashmir Division. The various officers and officials of the Directorate of Rural Sanitation, J&K were also present during this orientation programme.
It was well briefed to all the officers that Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2023 is an exercise for assessing the status of SBM Grameen in rural areas. The aim of the orientation was to spread out the participation of Gram Panchayats, Districts, and State/UT to create enthusiasm towards Sanitation.
It was explained that the SSG-2023 shall be done at the level of Village wherein the first phase will be self-assessment which is to be done at the panchayat level only which will subsequently be reviewed by the peer group and finally a third-party evaluation shall be done by an agency to be nominated by the Government of India.
Speaking on the occasion, the Director Rural Sanitation urged all the officers to complete the process of self-assessment of all the villages by 31st of December, 2022.
He stated that self-assessment would give impetus to the performance of UT of J&K which has already been able to achieve the milestone of 1000 ODF Plus villages. He said that it is an opportunity to deal with areas in which some of the panchayats need to perform better.
The other SBM verticals that were discussed in the orientation were Grey water Management, Solid Waste Management and Faecal sludge Management.
In the orientation programme, these issues were discussed in great detail followed by an interactive session. The use of different technologies and assets to be created under the scheme were explained. It was put forth with clarity as to what kind of Grey Water and Solid Waste Management interventions needs to be undertaken at various places.
While interacting with the participants, Director Rural Sanitation J&K asked to focus on sustaining the gains from the first phase of the project. He said that the assets should be developed in a methodical manner so that they not only work effectively but also sustain over the years to come.
It was discussed that the state has already achieved the ODF status by providing toilets to all households. The department is also working vigorously to construct CSCs wherever required and provide IHHLs to new households to sustain the status of ODF plus across the UT.
It was also discussed that in an attempt to convert waste to energy and wealth two Gobardhan projects are already functional in the UT and 36 more such projects are in the pipeline which could produce energy using cow dung and benefit the local households while dealing with animal waste.
The department is also working towards making semi-mechanized PWM across all districts of the UT to dispose of the menace of plastic waste in a manner that is not a health hazard for the locals as well as future generations.
In the orientation programme another vital issue like door-to-door waste collection and retrofitting of toilets which is the conversion of single-pit toilets into twin-pit toilets was deliberated upon. It was discussed that it is an important aspect of the Mission to discuss the technological gaps affecting toilet functionality and fecal sludge management.
