Govt holds campaign against open defecation on World Toilet Day

Kolkata: The Panchayat and Rural Development department carried out a massive campaign against

open defecation on World Toilet Day.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "On #WorldToiletDay today, let us pledge to eradicate the menace of open defecation. Our State's flagship programme, #MissionNirmalBangla, has been very successful. As of May, 2018, 11 districts, 33,261 Villages, 2,621 Gram Panchayats and 255 Blocks in the State have become #ODF."

Steps have already been taken by the Panchayat and Rural Development department to make all the districts in Bengal open defecation free by March 2019, much ahead of the deadline of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which is October 2, 2019.

The department has released posters and stickers to create awareness against open defecation. Through the posters, parents, particularly the mothers, have been requested to ensure that their children wash their hands before taking any meal.

Also, people have been urged to clear the containers used to store water periodically, to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.

Steps have been taken to expedite the construction of toilets in every household in five districts that include Purulia, Jhargram, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and areas under GTA, where construction work is being carried out at slower speeds.

It may be mentioned that Nadia was the country's first district that was declared as ODF by the Centre. Much before Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, 2015, Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for the Panchayat and Rural Development department, at a meeting held in Nadia, urged the District Magistrates to take steps to make the areas under their jurisdiction open defecation free. The DMs agreed and Mission Nirmal Bangla was introduced.

Round the year campaign is on to ensure that people of the villages that have toilets, use and maintain them properly.