MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION
(SHRI BHARATSINH SOLANKI)
(a)&(b): Yes sir, the agencies hired for survey work in connection with Nirmal Gram Puraskar
(NGP) during last three years were selected on the basis of their technical and professional
competency. The agency had to meet the following criteria :
i. It should be a legal entity eligible to enter into an agreement/contract with the
Department to undertake work contract in India.
ii. Experience of at least 3 years in conducting such surveys related to rural development
in at least three different States of India.
iii. The agency must have a permanent establishment of its own with at least 20 field
supervisors/officials on its roll having experience in conducting such survey with minimum
educational qualification of Graduation.
iv. A minimum annual turnover of Rupees Fifty Lakh or more during the last three years.
v. The nodal officer for the survey should be a post graduate preferably in Statistics,
Social Work, Economics, MBA/ with 15 years of experience in the field of Water Supply,
Sanitation, Health and Hygiene.
During the current year, states have given responsibility for selecting Gram Panchayats for
Nirmal Gram Puraskar.
(c): The Terms of Reference (ToR) did not specify any criteria for hiring of local persons.
However the ToR stipulated that the survey agency had to assign sufficient member of survey teams
so as to cover all the allocated GPs within the stipulated time frame. Each survey team was to
consist of 1 supervisor and at least 2 investigators. All the members of the team were to be at
least graduates and at least one of them was to be able to communicate effectively in the local
languages.
(d)&(e): Yes, sir. The details are as follows. As per the ToR, the following methodology and
procedure were prescribed for carrying out the surveys :
i. Households should be selected following Cluster Random Sampling technique so as to
invariably represent all the villages or clusters of GP in the same proportion as total BPL
and APL and SC/ST households in the GP. 50% of the respondents in the households covered should
be women.
ii. All schools, Anganwadis and community toilets should be visited and the toilets inspected
in the GP. The team shall also interview all the students in Primary classes and collect
information to ascertain (a) How many have Toilets in their houses and (b) Usage of toilets by
them and their family members.
iii. Discussions should be conducted with GP members, School teachers, Anganwadi workers, NGOs,
ANM and district/block level officials.
iv. The survey team should spent at least 1 night in the GP to ascertain whether the practice
of open defecation has been eliminated/stopped or not by visiting the traditional places of open
defecation in the evening , at night and in the wee hours of the morning.
v. The survey team shall visit all the villages/clusters in the GP to assess the general
cleanliness in the village and see if any garbage/waste is dumped near any public drinking water
source/public areas/panchayat bhawan etc. The survey team shall also see if there are any choked
drains in the village or pools of stagnant water that can act as breeding place for mosquitoes
and report the same in the specified format.
vi. To collect a copy of resolution banning open defecation in the village and check whether
the same has been documented in the register of resolutions of the Gram Sabha.
(f): the details of funds released to each of the agencies that conducted survey in NGP applicant
villages in the country including Bihar during 2010 and 2011 is at Annexure-1 and 2.
(g)&(h): No such objection was raised by Bihar Government. However a representation was received
from State of Maharashtra during year 2009-10 regarding NGP 2009. The same was examined and the
matter was settled by informing the State that it would not be possible to review those cases for
Nirmal gram Puruskar 2009 in view of the facts of the case.
