Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday ordered creation of 16,726 sanitary workers’ posts in 12,524 village panchayats in addition to the existing workers to ensure better sanitation in rural areas.
An official release here said the present number of sanitary workers was insufficient to carry out the sanitary works in all the village panchayats. As per directions of the Chief Minister, 8,469 village panchayats where the population was below 3,000, one more sanitary worker would be appointed per village panchayat. Similarly, in 3,908 panchayats which have population ranging from 3,001 to 10,000 two additional sanitary workers would be appointed while the 147 village panchayats which have population above 10,000 would have three additional sanitary workers.
The sanitary workers to be appointed would get a consolidated payment of Rs 2,000 per month and a dearness allowance of Rs 40. This measure would cause an additional expenditure of Rs 41.81 crore.
During previous tenures of Jayalalithaa as the CM, integrated sanitary complexes for women were constructed. After assuming the office of CM for the third term, she has ordered renovation of 12,796 women integrated sanitary complexes at a cost of `170 crore. Besides, she has granted `35 crore for constructing 770 integrated sanitary complexes.
Besides, with a view to reviving the Clean Village Movement, an initiative launched by her in 2003 during her earlier tenure to achieve the goal of total sanitation in rural areas of the State, she had announced an award of Rs five lakh for those village panchayats which attain 100 per cent sanitation through this scheme. During 2011-12, cash awards were given to 31 village panchayats.