Chandigarh: Owing to the concerted efforts of the state government towards making adequate arrangements for the Solid and Liquid Waste Management in the rural areas, the Government of India has selected 171 villages across the state under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA).

Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that the move would benefit around 33000 households in these Nirmal Gram villages, which would be equipped with proper sanitation facilities under the scheme. Mr. Badal further said that under the NBA, which is a comprehensive program to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation, the Union government has allotted Rs 17.09 crore to these 171 villages. This amount has been allocated by the Centre government to these 171 Nirmal Gram villages under the annual action plan for the financial year 2013-14.

Under the project 4248 households in 24 villages of Amritsar, 7372 households in 20 villages of Bathinda, 476 households in nine villages of Fatehgarh Sahib, 717 households in 11 villages of Ferozepur, 573 households in eight villages of Gurdaspur, 256 households in three villages of Hoshiarpur, 1464 households in eight villages of Jalandhar, 1287 households in 11 villages of Kapurthala, 3856 households in eight villages of Ludhiana, 1600 households in seven villages of Mansa, 741 households in four villages of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshehar), 5201 households of 19 villages in Patiala, 1874 households in 19 villages of Rupnagar, 2211 households in 10 villages of SAS Nagar (Mohali) and 1578 households in 10 villages of Sangrur district would be benefitted.

It may be recalled that the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, who holds the portfolio of Water Supply & Sanitation, had been constantly emphasizing the need for imparting basic civic amenities to the people residing in the rural areas on urban pattern. Likewise, the state government has been making stupendous efforts for cleaning the river water and ponds in the villages. Mr. Badal had also underscored the need for holistic development of the villages, during a meeting held with the Planning Commission on India (PCI) early this year for discussing the annual plan of the state. The Chief Minister had sought a special provision of Rs 750 crore especially for improving Village ponds under NBA as now these ponds which were once source of drinking water have turned into ugly site of sewage. He had impressed upon the PCI to frame a new scheme with sufficient provision of funds for providing sewerage facilities to villages having population above 8000 during the current five year plan.