Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29: The state government has asked the civic body to implement a new toilet scheme for the urban poor of the capital city.

The scheme - called the Mini Community Toilet Scheme - will be put in place to encourage city households, especially slum dwellers, to stop open defecation and start using toilets. The housing and urban development department has prepared the basic plans of the scheme.

The department has asked the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to encourage families, who cannot build individual household latrines on their own due to space constraint, to opt for the new scheme. It has been divided into two categories - clusters of four houses and six houses. The civic body will provide incentive for construction of these mini community toilets.

According to plan, the civic officials will survey households that are eligible to opt for the schemes. The households interested in taking up the scheme can approach the civic body on their own and avail of funds for construction of the toilet. The civic body will provide Rs 40,000 for a four-house latrine and Rs 55,000 for a six-house one.

'One house from the cluster will take the lead and get the money for construction of the toilets. The lead house will take care of the repair and maintenance of the toilet. Initially, the beneficiaries will contribute to the toilet construction and later, the money will be reimbursed,' said an official of housing and urban development department.

The department has also issued a specific guidelines mentioning the size of the toilet block and soak pit in the said scheme. According to guidelines, the toilet block could house up to two toilet seats based on the availability of space. The soak pit, on the other hand, will be dug up based on the number of seats and users.

'We have already issued work order for construction of individual latrines. However at many places, this scheme is not working due to space constraint. The mini toilet scheme will help overcome this problem. We will deploy our officials to identify such cluster of houses and encourage them to make use of the scheme,' said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.