Team from Chhattisgarh visited East Devadhanam Flagship Project

A team of senior officials, Mayors and Municipal Chairmen from Chhattisgarh State visited Trichy in January under a capacity building exposure-cum-learning visit to Trichy Corporation.

Chhattisgarh being a relatively new State, the aim of the team was to learn about water supply, solid waste management and liquid waste management schemes and about public-private partnership programmes. The 24-member team had representatives from Bilaspur, Jagadalpur, Badebajell, Kirandul, Manendrai, Kaverdha and Raipur Municipalities and Corporations and others.

A presentation was made by the Municipal Executive Engineer, Mr. Chandran, for the benefit of the visitors in the presence of Mrs. Sujatha, Mayor and Mr. Raja Mohammed, City Chief Engineer, Mrs. Geetha, Director, Gramalaya and Mr. V. Ganapathy, Liaison Officer, ExNoRa. The presentation showed the DEWATS at East Devadhanam with a special focus on the management of operation and maintenance by the SHG members. The team raised questions regarding maintenance of the toilets by the SHGs and the funds given by ExNoRa for the project; mention was also made of a similar facility in Musiri where the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of the State Government partly financed the Project with seed money from ExNoRa. It was maintained by the Musiri Town Panchayat itself. Later, the fact sheet explaining the concept of DEWATS was distributed to leading members of the Chhattisgarh team.