Live
- Archery World Cup: Deepika storms into individual semis; Compound Mixed Team in final
- Adopt zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism, India tells SCO member states
- Free haircut, 'mehendi' for women on offer as Maharashtra votes in Phase 2
- BJP president JP Nadda to visit Odisha on April 28
- Participation of women in workforce is a constitutional entitlement: SC
- Sabita, Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, made a surprise visit to the sub-jail
- Superstars Yash, Rakshit Shetty cast their votes, underline importance of polling
- Hyderabad court denies bail to 3 police officers in phone tapping case
- Apollo Hospitals' unit to raise Rs 2,475 crore from PE firm Advent International
- More than 70 per cent voter turnout in Assam till 5 PM
Students lack awareness, open defecation persists
The lack of awareness among the students about the utility of toilets has become a cause of concern in the district.
Swachh Bharat campaign
NIRMAL: The lack of awareness among the students about the utility of toilets has become a cause of concern in the district. Although the State government had allocated a substantial amount on construction of toilets in schools across the district, improper maintenance is causing a lot of hardships for the students. As a result, most of the students in the government schools, especially in rural areas, prefer to go for open defecation rather using toilets in schools.
As the condition of toilets in some schools is in extremely bad shape and filthy, the students have no other option but to go out to answer nature’s call. A case in point is the Zilla Parishad Secondary school at Mategaon of Bhainsa mandal in Nirmal district. “Our toilets are not yet all used by students due to their poor maintenance. Only the toilet of the teachers is cleaned regularly”, said a staff member on request of anonymity. He said that the school authorities were quite indifferent in maintaining cleanliness.
A similar situation exists at the government residential hostel at Anusuya Pawar colony in Bhainsa mandal. Though bathrooms and lavatories are in good condition, they are never used by students. Still students take bath in the open school ground and practice open defecation. “Students prefer to go outside always and never use toilets. Even they go out during the night” said watchman.
There are 575 government primary schools, 102 upper primary schools,143 Zilla Parishad schools in the district. The government took up the construction of 788 toilets in 577 schools sanctioning a whopping amount of Rs 7,57,57,500 out of which 4,98,11,360 have already been released. The remaining amount of Rs 2,59, 46,610 is yet to be released. The management committee of the school has been entrusted the responsibility of toilet construction.
So far, construction of 510 toilets has been completed while 90 toilets are on the verge of completion. Recently, a student of sixth class inthe Zilla Parishad School went to a nearby lake to answer natur’s call is a glaring example of the negligence of school authorities. Speaking to The Hans India here on Sunday, some of the locals and parents of students said that the district administration has to chalk out a plan action to create awareness among the students and discourage them from going outside to attend to nature’s call. They hoped that the school authorities would also show some interest in mitigating the sufferings of the students.
By Sathyapu Srinivas Reddy
