Veppankuppam panchayat, 40 km from the district headquarters, has claimed to be the fist in Vellore district to have achieved one hundred per cent sanitation.
According to newly elected panchayat president and ward councillors, they were able to achieve the distinction by banning open defecation and educating residents about the hygiene. Garbage-free streets and well-maintained sanitary complexes are indicators of the clean and healthy environment of the panchayat.
The panchayat, with the mother village Veppankuppam and its hamlets AD Colony, Vinayagapuram, Rangapan kottai and Anandapuram has a population of around 1,000 people.
“In the first meeting after the local body election, we passed a resolution against open defecation and also decided to impose a fine of `50 on violators. We have also carried out a mass cleaning drive in all wards in the panchayat and have removed 58 loads of garbage in a single day,” said the 34-year-old panchayat president M Navakrishnan.
The local body educated and urged the villagers to use the renovated women sanitary complexes, which was not being used properly, and toilets in the government middle schools and anganwadis in the panchayat. “With full co-operation from the villagers, we have now achieved total sanitation,” claims Navakrishnan, “The district administration has now allocated 121 individual toilets for the panchayat under the government scheme,” he added.
The panchayat president also arranged for concrete dustbins to be placed in 32 locations and constructed six dustbins in the adjoining villages.
Slogans such as ‘panchayat free of open defection and garbage’, ‘maintain clean environment’, ‘dispose garbage in dustbins’ and ‘maintain self hygiene’ have been written at 176 places in the panchayat to educate the villagers on the importance of health and environment. “The dustbins are cleaned once in three days and bleaching powder is sprinkled. We are also getting drinking water twice a day. Now the village looks clean,” said 60-year-old Valliyamma, a local resident.
Earlier, garbage would be seen dumped everywhere and children used to defecate in vacant plots, she added.
The unused government buildings have been renovated and turned into a post office and vaniga valagam (commercial complex). “The Veppankuppam panchayat has not only achieved total sanitation, but has also achieved an encroachment free and garbage free panchayat status. We have referred the panchayat for the state government clean village campaign award. It carries a cash price of `5 lakh,” said project director of District Rural Development Agency, N Srinivasan.
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