State level Swachh Bharat Mission workshop

Ranchi, Jharkhand | October | Tuesday | 06, 2015 :: The State level Swachh Bharat Mission workshop organized by Departments of Drinking Water & Sanitation and Rural  development with UNICEF support was organized today in Hotel BNR Chanakya, Ranchi.

District level officials of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) & Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DWSD) were oriented on their roles and responsibilities to ensure improved coordination for open defecation free communities through the MNREGA. Stress was laid on promotion of sustainable toilets during the workshop through the use of MNREGA funds. This year 240 Gram Panchayats have been identified in the state to be saturated through MGNREGA.

 C.P Chaudhary, Minister DWSD lauded the work done by the department in Ramgarh and Ranchi districts and urged the NREGA officials to accelerate the implementation in the targeted areas. He announced that Ramgarh will be the first district to be made open defecation free in the state by 2017.

 Kumar Premchand, WASH Specialist, UNICEF shared his experiences from the implementation of the programme in Simdega and Ramgarh. He said sustained efforts are needed to bring about behavior change at all level.

State specific guidelines on Swachha Bharat Mission (Gramin) & MNREGA convergence for better sanitation coverage was released during the workshop. It includes the programmatic objectives; processes; key stake holders; their roles and responsibilities, institutional setup of flagships, effective coordination for better implementation; etc.

The workshop was attended by  N N Sinha, Principal Secretary