‘Missile launches useless if no toilets’….Debabrata Mohanty
Calling for research by defence scientists for the common man, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said it did not matter how many Agni missiles India launched, but what mattered was toilets at home.
Speaking at the launch of the first of bio-digester toilets developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) here, Ramesh said the huge expenditure on defence should also mean development for the people. “The total budget of the Rural Development Ministry is around Rs 99,000 crore a year while that of defence is Rs 1,93,000 crore. I am not saying defence budget should be cut, but the expenditure on defence should also result in development,” he said.
Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Shrikant Jena launched the toilets.
“Nearly 60% of the people in the world who defecate in the open belong to India. Even countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan have better records. We should be ashamed of this,” Ramesh said, proposing that women self-help groups should now be used in the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.
Slamming Orissa for its poor sanitation record, Ramesh said of the nearly 6,300 gram panchayats in the state, merely 280 are those where every household has a latrine. While Sikkim has already achieved the status of Nirmal Bharat State where all people use toilets, Kerala would be the next state to achieve 100 per cent toilet use. He expressed disappointment that the states like UP, Bihar, Orissa and MP are lagging behind.
Though the bio-digester eco-friendly toilets (called ELOO for Eco-friendly Loo) have been used in places like Siachen, this is the first time that the model would be used in rural India. By July first week, the ministry will sign an MoU with the Defence Ministry to set up eco-friendly toilets across the country. In the first phase, such toilets would be set up in 1,000 gram panchayats with a total expenditure of Rs 400 crore.
Each beneficiary will have to pay Rs 900 for the toilet that costs Rs 15,000 a piece. After the function, the minister visited Wheeler’s Island, which is the site of ballistic missile tests by the DRDO.