Little impact of Swachh Bharat in Gundala

What they know about Swachh Bharat is only from TV ads. Ironically the Swachh Bharat toilet scheme has little impact in Gundala mandal in fact in the entire Aleru constituency.

TRS local MLA and chief whip G. Sunita has selected Seetharampuram, the village she adopted for the Swachh Bharat scheme. While Gundala mandal has 20 villages only two villages are selected including Seetharamapur. The Gundala village where the suicide of Rekha took place, the panchayat is ruled by an opposition Congress sarpanch.

Gundala Mandal Parishat Development Officer, J. Ravinder said, “Two villages Seetarampur and Gangapur are selected under Swachh Bharat individual household latrine scheme. We have proposed a total of six villages and two are selected for now. In the next phases other villages will be covered. While in Gangapur that has been adopted by the MRO around 30 units of IHHL are sanctioned in Seetarampur around 245 is the target and we have sanctioned 80 so far. The construction is in progress in both villages.

Likewise, under MNREGA scheme, Gundala village sarpanch M. Sunita said, “We have been trying to educate the villagers and most of them do not come forward due to illiteracy and lack of awareness.”

Interestingly both Swachh Bharat and MNREGA under which IHHL are constructed are central government funded schemes. The money that is being sanctioned under the scheme is `12,000 which is not sufficient as it would cost anywhere around `20,000 to `25,000.

Mr Ravinder said, “It is true that the money is not sufficient. The beneficiaries have to bear it from their pocket so they don’t come forward. Though poverty is the reason in some cases there is negligence, lack of awareness and unwillingness is also a cause for this situation.”

In each mandal government has selected two to three villages under Swacch Bharat scheme in a total of 59 mandals in Nalgonda district in the first phase.