1.41 mn toilets for Maharashtra's rural areas

Mumbai, March 9 (IANS) Maharashtra will construct around 1.41 million toilets in rural areas in the current fiscal under the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan', Governor C.V. Rao said on Monday.

Another 800,000 toilets will be provided to households in urban areas of the state, Rao told a joint session of the Maharashtra legislature on the opening day of the budget session 2015-16.

With a view to provide sanitation, water and other related services, the government will launch Jalswarajya-II Programme in 12 districts with World Bank assistance.

"Under the MGNREG scheme, construction of 44,000 wells will be completed within two years and more work related to roads will be undertaken through the employment guarantee scheme," Rao said.

To combat recurrent drought, the state has announced the 'Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan' initiative to make Maharashtra "drought free" by 2019.

This will include implementing rainwater harvesting within village boundaries to increase ground water levels and promote incentivised micro-irrigation systems to make 5,000 villages water-scarcity free annually, the governor said.

He listed various other developmental measures already initiated or to be taken up, especially for the underprivileged sections of the society.