the goan I network
MARGAO
The government is contemplating on bringing an amendment to the Public Health Act to empower health officials to grant permission for construction of toilets on the lines of NOCs issued for water and electricity.
The government has in-principle decided to go in for the amendment to the Public Health Act after realisation dawned that the Open Defecation Free (ODF) scheme has hit a road block with majority of the 17,000 applications for the sanitation facilities awaiting approval for want of NOCs from the land owners.
Commenting on the status of the ODF scheme in Goa, Panchayat Director Rajan Sattardekar informed that the government had received around 17,000 applications for toilets under the scheme. He, however, said while 4,000 applications have the requisite NOCs as per the rules, the balance applications are stuck up for want of NOCs from the land owners.
“To tide over the problem, the government is contemplating on bringing an amendment to the Health Act empowering health officials to issue NOCs for toilets in the event the land owners are not issuing the NOCs to the beneficiaries,” he said, adding that the government wants to treat toilet facilities as a necessity on par with water and power.
On the status of the cases, Sattardekar said that the Goa Waste Management Corporation will open the tender for taking up work on the construction of the toilets, adding that the work order can be issued for the contractors if
the Election Commission exempts the project from the election code.
