Geotagging workers face ire of villagers

Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 21

The geotagging of the Indian Household Latrines (IHHL) in rural areas has brought field functionaries under the ire of villagers. The residents who have constructed toilets themselves fear that in order to meet targets, the government was undertaking a bogus exercise.

The grievances are pouring in from almost all districts of Jammu province from far-flung villages where the Rural Development Department is reaching out to households to geotag the number of toilets constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin where the primary objective is to improve the level of cleanliness through solid and liquid waste management activities and making villages open defecation free.

“There is great pressure on us to reach to all households for photographing the toilets constructed under the scheme to meet the target set by the Government of India. In many cases, we are hounded out by villagers who have constructed toilets themselves. They don’t allow photography saying that the department was conducting a bogus operation to siphon off finances meant for toilets,” said one of the field functionaries at Samba.

Clarifying on the situation having created due to the fast geotagging of the latrines, Sheikh Ahmed Nazir, Director, Rural Sanitation, Jammu, said since there had been a fall in the percentage of works completed below 60, the department had to gear up geotagging to meet the demand to get funds from the Government of India.

“We have to meet the target by October 2 for 100 per cent geotagging and hence, there is great pressure on the department to wind up the scheme at the earliest. There have been reports of village-level workers being given rude treatment by the villagers at certain points which is due to the lack of awareness among people,” said Nazir.

He said since the entire process of geotagging was done only after completing the toilets and in case of self-constructed ones, the 2012 baseline survey was being taken into account for which the money is transferred into the account of the beneficiaries having constructed the toilets earlier, there was no chance of any corruption.

Anirudh Singh, chairman, Village-Level Workers’ Union, said geotagging was being done taking the latitude and longitude measurements which was an online process while the money was being transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, whether the new ones or those having self-constructed toilets.

Residents fear funds fraud   

The grievances are pouring in from almost all districts of Jammu province from far-flung villages. Villagers are not allowing photography of their latrines saying they had constructed the toilets themselves and the Rural Development Department was conducting a bogus operation to siphon off finances meant under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin

Poor performance in sanitation

The present data of sanitation for J&K presents a very gloomy picture. According to the the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in 2014-15, J&K's cumulative coverage under the Individual Household Latrines was 23.01 per cent. During 2015-16, the state achieved 27.31 per cent progress. In 2016-17, J&K's cumulative performance on this aspect was measured at 32.79 per cent and it was only ahead of Bihar, Daman and Diu. During the current year, the state's performance has been measured at 37.02 per cent and it is only ahead of Bihar among all the states and union territories in the country