Chhattisgarh's red zones lag behind in Modi's cleanliness mission

RAIPUR: The implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship cleanliness mission, Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, in the Maoist infested and tribal dominated areas of Bastar, Kondagaon, Balrampur and Gariyaband, has came under criticism from no less than Chhattisgarh chief minister, Dr Raman Singh.
Dr Singh, who reviewed the progress of the abhiyan and PM's Rural Roads Project with the officers of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department here on Thursday, expressed his dissatisfaction over the lack of interest of Bastar, Balrampur, Gariyaband , Kondagaon district administrations in the cleanliness drive.However, the districts of Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari , Raigarh and Surguja topped the list of best performing districts under the 'Swachch Bharat' Mission.
According to a government spokesman, about 474 villages have been freed of open toilets till now. He said an awareness campaign will be launched from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Jayanti on 25 September till Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayanti on 31 October to educate masses on the ill-effects of this harmful practice.
The spokesman said as per the survey conducted in 2012-13 about 60 per cent of the families (26.76 lakhs) had no toilets in their residences and about 10.31 lakhs had not been using the toilets. Dr Raman Singh directed officers that as per the targets set by Narendra Modi the State Government will construct concrete toilets in all houses by 150th Jayanti of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October 2019.
The chief minister also reviewed PM's Rural Roads Project and directed the officers to lay stress on the quality and the standard of the roads in the initial stages itself. "There should not be any compromise on the material used for laying the roads", he told officers.
Dr Raman Singh said since the inception of Chhattisgarh about 25,400km roads have been laid in the state, at a cost of Rs 7,063 crore. The meeting was attended by Panchayat and Rural Development Department Additional chief secretary, MK Raut , chief minister's principal secretary, Aman Kumar Singh, finance secretary, Amit Agrawal, public health engineering department secretary M Geeta , industry department secretary Subodh Kumar Singh, chief minister's joint secretary, Rajat Kumar and other senior officials.