Mangaluru: Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim held a press meet at the DC office here, on February 27.
Addressing the mediapersons, Ibrahim said, “In 1993 Manual Scavenging Act was passed and was amended with stringent rules in 2013 with an aim to eradicate manual scavenging. The main aim of the act was to identify and eliminate any unhygienic toilets, stop appointment of manual scavengers (MS), enforce a ban on manual cleaning of septic tanks and to run a survey of manual scavengers and rehabilitate them.”
Manual scavenging refers to the unsafe, undignified removal of raw (fresh and untreated) human excreta from buckets or other containers that are used as toilets or from the pits of simple pit latrines.
The survey on manual scavengers will be held from February 29 to March 12, after which the President of the Gram Panchayat will submit the survey forms to the chief administrative officer of the district after verifying them between March 14 and 19. These filled forms will then be submitted to the ZP CEO between March 21 and 26.
Zilla Panchayat CEO, Sreevidya said, “If there are any MS then the report will be submitted to the government and a suitable rehabilitation plan will be constructed on the basis of the survey. The MS has to submit his photograph along with a picture of his entire family. If there are five MS in a family, then each one has to submit an individual photograph along with a picture of the entire family. The survey will include questions like, the locality they clean, the mode of payment they receive and other questions that will help in their rehabilitation.”
District Welfare Officer, Santhosh said, “MS are those in the Socio-Economic Census 2011, we found that there were 123 people in Dakshina Kannada, who worked as MS. As of 2015, there are 634 families in the district involved in MS works, out of which 96 are in Mangaluru, 261 in Bantwal, 36 in Puttur, 222 in Beltangady and 19 in Sullia.”
He further said that there will be a team formed to run the survey in each Gram. The team will consist of a PDO, GP Secretary/SDAA/Bill Collector and a representative of any NGO. For more information on this survey, the representatives of NGO’s can contact President of Grameen Aashrama Samsthe, Ashok on 9448724259. A training session was held for all the participants of the survey on February 24. Mohammed Anwar is the resource person appointed for the survey in Dakshina Kannada, Uttar Kannada and Udupi districts and can be contacted on 9448202293.
Ibrahim said, “Nobody should get into manholes to clean them and if anyone does then they should be brought to book.”
On sand mining, Ibrahim said, “There are 19 blocks identified as Coastal Regulation Zones (CRZ) and 38 blocks as non-CRZ. To extract sand from CRZ there is a long process, first we need clearance from the Green Tribunal and later from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and it will take a lot of time. However in the non-CRZ a tender to extract sand from Gurupura, Nethravati and Kumaradhara is called by PWD. Stock yards have been identified, where the extracted sand can be deposited. It is a e-tender process and February 29 is the last day to file the tender. The contractor should have 1 JCB (extractor and bulldozer), and 2 tipper trucks to qualify.”
Ibrahim said, “Election of President and Secretary of City Municipalities of Puttur, Ullal and City Panchayat of Beltangady is to be held as their terms end on March 10. Similarly the term of President and Secretary of Bantwal Municipality will end on March 11 and an election has to be held to fill the vacant posts.”
