Varanasi man plans to gift toilet to his sister
VARANASI: Dilip, a resident of Phoolpur village in Pindra gram sabha here is racing against time to build a two-pit toilet at his modest home. His deadline is coming Monday, when Dilip hopes to gift the facility to his sister Munni.
Munni is among several girls in the district who will get toilets as a present from their brothers as part of the Swachhata Bandan and Bhai No. 1 campaigns launched by the district to motivate men to build toilets for their sisters. Swachhata Bandhan rallies are being organised at each village of the eight blocks of the district. Like Dilip many residents are constructing toilets despite limited financial means, Sunil Kumar Verma, the dustrict's chief development officer told us. Success stories under the campaign will be compiled for the contest, Bhai No. 1. These cases will be verified by village secretaries and ADO panchayat. One among them will get the 'Swatchhata Ratna-2017' award and will take home a Notepad at a function on August 30, the CDO said. Dilip is a machine operator at a private firm. "I arranged Rs 15,000 to construct the toilet. This amount is big for people like me, but I made up my mind to gift a toilet to my sister," he said. He had to borrow from others to meet the expense. "The construction has started and I hope to get the toilet ready by Monday," he said. Verma said besides the Bhai No. 1 award, two persons selected from each block would also be felicitated at the August 30 function. Also, district officials have come forward to adopt poor women as their sisters to gift toilets to them. District magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra is constructing a toilet for Santoshi Devi, a resident of Masheshpur village in Kashi Vidyapith block. Santoshi and her husband Raj Kumar are physically disabled.
Likewise, the CDO is also constructing a toilet for a 74-year-old disabled woman, Mantora Devi, of Ausanpur village in Harahua block. All BDOs, block pramukhs and other district level officers have been requested to gift toilets to needy women. According to Verma, the district aims to construct 1.83 lakh toilets by December 31. "Two months ago, the rate of toilet construction was 47 per day. Now, after constant monitoring, it has increased to 418 per day in the last six days. If we maintain this progress next week as well, Varanasi will be among the leaders in rate of toilet construction in Uttar Pradesh," the CDO said.
"We have to increase it to 1000 per day to get to rank 1 by August 15," he added. A swatchhata samman samaroh will be celebrated on August 15, in which all people associated with swachhata campaigns, including secretaries, gram vikas adhikaris, safai workers, pradhans and anganwadi workers will be felicitated for their outstanding contributions.
