The Bhubaneswar State Government has asked the Housing and Urban Development Department to issue advisory to all the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to stop the practice of open defecation by imposing fine against violators.

Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati, who reviewed the total sanitation campaign under Swachh Bharat programme in municipalities and NACs, asked the ULBs to take up special drive against the practice of open defecation and motivate people to construct latrine in individual household and commercial establishments on their premises.

He also stressed on release of toilet wastes and sewerage to the drains should be stopped and strong public opinion should be built against such practice by involving community and voluntary organisations. He also mentioned about individual households should be mobilised to convert all their insanitary toilets to sanitary toilets with construction of safety tanks. Pati further directed to form special squads to make field visits and impose fine as a deterrent to open defecation which has been creating serious health hazards.

The Chief Secretary also took stock of the public toilets under construction in different cities and arrangements made for maintenance of the existing public toilets in cities like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur. The Sewerage Board was also advised to work out four to five cost effective and eco-friendly designs for construction of public and private toilets. The Board has been asked to expedite the process and take up 5-10 such projects on pilot basis.

Secretary, Housing and Urban Development G Mathivathanan gave an update on the total sanitation programme under execution in the ULBs across the State. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has been regularly monitoring the Swachh Bharat programme of the State Government. Though the State Government had set a target to construct over seven lakh toilets in 2014-15, only 84,086 individual household toilets were covered under the programme by January this year. Of 181 Community Sanitary Complex planned under the total sanitation campaign, only nine CSCs could be completed, which is less than five per cent of the target.