NALBARI, Jan 7 - The Nalbari district administration has resolved to construct 48,000 new sanitary latrines among the below poverty line (BPL) families with an aim to make Nalbari an open defecation-free (ODF) district by March 31 next.
The Deputy Commissioner of Nalbari, Anant Lal Gyani told this correspondent that the administration has already completed construction of 16,000 new low-cost latrines under the aforementioned project. The rest will be completed soon, he said.
He further informed that a total of 39,000 existing latrines have been lying defunct within the district. In order to restore the defunct latrines, the district administration has taken up a special drive with the help of NGOs, individual contributions and donations.
According to him, the district administration is also trying to motivate the above poverty line (APL) families to avoid the habit of defecation in open places. The motivational effort, it may be mentioned, has been responsible for the construction of 9,000 more sanitary latrines by APL families themselves.
The Deputy Commissioner added that the administration will cover all the 1.60 lakh families of the district by March 31 next.
