(Reopens MDS5)

Jayalalilthaa said under MNREGA and Swachh BharatMission this year, 15.17 lakh toilets would be built in ruralhouseholds to make 4,175 more village panchayats attainself-sufficiency in sanitation and eradicate open defecation. Under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and UrbanTransformation plan, drinking water supply development workswould be taken up at a cost of Rs 3,229.23 crore in cities,including Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. The sustainable water security mission under whichrain water harvesting is being promoted in greater Chennaiareas would be extended to the entire state, she said. Referring to deployment of ‘sanitation guards’ in9,000 village panchayats under solid waste managementprogramme who segregate garbage, she said the plan would beextended to the remaining 3,524 village panchayats. Existing infrastructure will also be augmented and Rs200 crore will be allocated for it, she said. "Through this initiative, Tamil Nadu will become thefirst state in the country to put in place the solid wastemanagement programme in all the village panchayats." Stating that Rs 26,460 crore has been disbursedthrough banks for the economic development of women self helpgroups in the past five years, the Chief Minister said stepswould be taken to facilitate sanction of bank loan to the tuneof Rs 6,000 crore this year for them. At an outlay of Rs 800 crore, under the TN Rural RoadsDevelopment Scheme, 900 km of mud roads would be asphalted,1,400 km of damaged tar roads repaired and 1,200 km of tarroads needing repairs on a lower scale refurbished. She said 1,200 small irrigation tanks would berefurbished at a cost of Rs 300 crore, which would helpincrease water table and storage levels. On dairy development, the Chief Minister announcedsetting up of an industry to manufacture polythene film formaking sachets to pack milk in Villupuram district at a costof Rs 82.54 crore. PTI VGN APR DIPKK