Guntur: Minister for panchayt raj Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu on Sunday said that the state government will provide Integrated Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) to 62 lakh families in the next five years to improve living standards.
Mr Ayyanna Patrudu, along with Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasads Rao and agriculture minister Prattipati Pulla Rao inaugurated an ISL awareness and construction programme at Sattenapalli on Sunday.
Addressing the gathering, the minister said that 62 lakh families in the 13 districts of the state have been identified without toilet facility. He said that that 15 lakh ISLs would be constructed every year.
Mr Ayyanna Patrudu said that 4,46,816 families in Guntur district cope without latrine facility in rural areas and asked these families to get ISLs to save themselves from communicable diseases due to open defaecations. He said that the Union government has released Rs 350 crore in phase-I and Rs 250 crore in phase-II in the 13th finance commission funds. These funds would be used for drinking water and sanitation, the minister said.
Mr Siva Prasad Rao appealed to women to force their family members to construct ISLs and asked officials to build 13,938 ISLs in Sattenapalli constituency by the end of the month.
Ministers Pulla Rao and R. Kishore Babu asserted the need to maintain hygiene through ISLs for good health.
MLCs, Nannapaneni Rajakumari, K.S. Laksh-mana Rao, MLAs G.P.S.R. Anajaneyulu, D. Narendra Kumar and Sravana Kumar also spoke.
Guntur district collector Kantilal Dande gave a PowerPoint presentation about the progress of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and ministers distributed cement bags to Self Help Group women to construct ISLs.
