Team Herald 

VALPOI: To make the Nagargao open defecation free, the panchayat has decided to hold awareness programmes on the use of bio toilets in all seven wards.

“Of the total 700 bio toilet applications distributed, we have received 146 applications and the same have been submitted to the Block Development Office, Valpoi,” informed panchayat secretary Rajendra Sawant during the Nagargao gram sabha held on Sunday. Around 30 villagers attended the meeting.

Sawant said, “We will hold the awareness programmes on the use of bio toilets in all seven wards.”

Sawant informed that in the last financial year the panchayat’s total expenditure was Rs 81.90 lakh, which includes the staff salary, development and other works.

Through Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana, a social welfare flagship programme, to provide housing for the rural poor in India, in last financial year, Sawant said, “We have built seven houses to those needy families in the panchayat area. This year, till date, one family from the Derode, in Valpoi has applied under the scheme.”