March 2009, target date for rehabilitation of manual scavengers Sanitary latrines for all rural households by 2012 Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar has urged Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja to ensure that all dry latrines in rural areas are converted into water seal latrines by March 2009. That is also the target date for rehabilitation of remaining manual scavengers.

The Central Government-appointed Community Based Monitoring (CBM) Project under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has come out with a preliminary report on the functioning of health care infrastructure in rural Thane. CBM project is a key to acquiring health rights for the rural population. It was started in April 2007 in five districts of Maharashtra including Thane rural. The report will be discussed with government officials in a public hearing at the zilla parishad level.

State medical and health director general Dr Ramesh Chandra deplored the poor maintenance of sanitation in villages and municipalities and felt the need to sensitise the general public on cleanliness of environs to keep diseases at bay. The director general chaired a regional task force meeting of officials from the medical and health and other connected departments in both East and West Godavari and Krishna districts here on Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the meet, the director general felt the need for creation of awareness on health and hygiene among the public.

Believe it or not, about 310 houses in Aldona do not have toilet facilities. Despite repeated efforts by a resident to highlight the issue, the Aldona panchayat has allegedly not enforced the need to have toilets in houses, while issuing occupancy certificates to the owners. Unhappy with the Aldona Panchayat for taking the issue lightly, residents passed a resolution at the gram sabha of Aldona on Sunday, stating that the panchayat should not issue occupancy certificates to new houses without proper toilet facilities.

Days after the young scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, alleged that the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) was not being implemented in drought-hit areas of Uttar Pradesh, the union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, admitted that the scheme faced corruption and had its shortcomings in implementation.

A total of 509 toilets have been constructed in schools against the district administration's target of 532. Moreover, toilets have been constructed in all the anganvadis in the district

Ladies Circle India (LCI), an organisation formed by wives of members of Round Table India, will construct 100 toilet blocks in rural schools across the country over the next two years to commemorate

It has not been functioning since it was damaged in rain A view of the Rural Sanitary Mart in Medavakkam near Tambaram. Elected representatives of some of the village panchayats in St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union (also called St. Thomas Mount Block) have appealed to the District Rural Development Agency to revive the Rural Sanitary Mart in Medavakkam near Tambaram. The Rural Sanitary Mart (RSM) was an outlet to sell materials required for building Individual Household Toilets. Such toilets are being established throughout the country under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the Central Rural Sanitation Programme of the Ministry of Rural Development and the District Rural Development Agency of the State governments. Damaged by rains To facilitate the implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign in St.Thomas Mount Block, the RSM was established in Medavakkam about five years ago. But heavy rains and rise of water level in the