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Parvesh Sharma
Tribune News Service
Sangrur, November 11
Despite the claims of the state government and the Sangrur administration of getting toilets constructed in each house, around 150 residents of Sangrur city have not received the required financial aid from the authorities.
“Despite fulfilling all formalities and making many rounds of the officials concerned, only one family, out of 10 households in our street, has received a mere Rs 2,000. That family too had to contribute the remaining Rs 8,000 on its own to fully construct the toilet,” said Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Ram Nagar Basti of Sangrur city.
Some other residents too shared similar stories. There are many households, which have not received even a single penny from the government and some have received the first instalment of Rs 2,000 and are still awaiting the second instalment to complete the construction of toilets.
“I have only received Rs 2,000 and constructed the structure of the toilet. As me and my wife have problems in walking, we use the toilet of our neighbours. But, it is really embarrassing that we do not have a toilet in our house even in this age,” said Mahinder Singh (80).
NGO Youth Power Group president Vikramdeep Singh Sidhu, who has started helping area residents in the construction of toilets, said, “There are around 150 residents in the area without toilets. We are trying to construct toilets for them by pooling money.”
With little amount, many houses have constructed only the structure of toilets, others are without doors and so on.
“We are a family of six and have not received any money from government for the construction of toilet despite making repeated rounds of the local Nagar Council. The Youth Power Group has started the construction of toilet for us,” said Bachan Kaur.
Junior Engineer of Nagar Council Parmjit Singh, who is incharge of the toilet project in Sangrur, said after the release of the first instalment of Rs 2,000 in 2016, the government has not released the second instalment.
“We are trying to get the release of the second instalment. In total, around Rs 7,000 is required for the construction of each toilet,” he said.