Chhattisgarh was among several other States and Union Territories which signed a ‘Declaration of Commitment’ to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) and Clean by 2019 at the India Sanitation Conference held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.
However, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh after signing the declaration on behalf of State, announced that the State would be ODF by October 2, 2018.
Top leadership of the country, including the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers from States and Union Territories on Friday signed a Declaration of Commitment to make India Open Defecation Free and Clean by 2019.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, and Maharashtra besides Ministers from States and UTs signed the Declaration during the India Sanitation Conference (INDOSAN) in New Delhi on Friday.
Other elected representatives from rural and urban local bodies, District Collectors, Municipal Commissioners also signed a similar Declaration.
Addressing the inaugural session of INDOSAN, Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said, “largest ever mass mobilisation is taken place under Swachchh Bharat Mission. With people leading the India Sanitation Alliance, cleanliness in rural and urban areas has been mainstreamed with political leadership at various levels for the first time. 21st century India has to get free from illiteracy and lITTERATI people who throw litter in the open.”
He said “Mood of Developing India” over the last two years has been for a Clean India and after a slow start, Swachchh Bharat Mission has gained momentum over the last one year with good progress in implementation in both rural and urban areas.
The Minister informed that as on date 405 cities and towns have come to be Open Defecation Free and 739 would become ODF by March 2017. A total of 24 lakh individual household toilets have so far been built in urban areas and another 19 lakh under construction.
A total of 20,000 of the 82,000 urban wards have become ODF. Around 90,000 community and public toilet seats have been built and another 1.29 lakh seats under
construction.
Eleven insitutions and organisations have been
felicitated by the Prime Minister for significant work to ensure cleanliness.
These were — Chandigarh and Mysuru (Clean Cities in million plus population category), Gangtok (Cleanest Tourism Destination), Pune Municipal Corporation and Swachchh Cooperative Society (Best in Solid Waste Management), Rani Ki Vav, Patan, Gujarat (Cleanest Cultural Heritage Site), Surat Railway Station (Cleanest Station), Post Graduate Institute of Medical Research & Education, Chandigarh (Cleanest Hospital), Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh (ODF and Cleanest district in hilly areas), Sindhugurg district, Maharashtra (ODF and Cleanest district in plain areas) and National Cadet Corps, NCC(Exemplary nation-wide cleanliness activities).
Notably, three towns in Chhattisgarh are among ten in the country which claimed elimination of Open Defecation, the Central Government had informed on August 29 this year.
The ten towns in West Bengal claiming elimination of Open Defecation include — Krishananagar, Nabadwip, Santipur and Kalyani. Other ODF claims are from Ambikapur, Dhamtari and Ambagarh Chowki in Chhattisgarh, Dungarpur in Rajasthan and Mairang and Kakching in Manipur.
As per the protocol for third party verification and certification of ODF status- each ward and city first self-declares as ODF and on intimation of the same by the respective Urban local Body or State, the Central Government ets such claims verified in 30 days based on assessment of service level status (construction and availability of household, community and public toilets) and independent observations by the third party.
For each Zone in a city/town, a minimum of five places will be inspected i.e. a slum, school, public area like market or religious place, residential area and bus stand/railway station. For a city with a population of less than five lakhs, a minimum of nine places shall be inspected and 17 places for a city with more than five lakh population.
As per the reports received from States so far, a total of 974 cities and towns will eliminate Open Defecation next year. These include — Andhra Pradesh — all 112 urban areas, Kerala — all 59, Gujarat — 170 of 195, Uttar Pradesh-85 of 648, Madhya Pradesh-68 of 364, Karnataka-50 of 220, Chhattisgarh-42 of 166, Assam-40 of 88, Telangana-37 of 68, Rajasthan-34 of 185, Tamil Nadu-25 of 721 and Jammu & Kashmir-22 of 86, it informed.
A Ward or City can be notified/declared as ODF if, at any point of the day, not a single person is found to be defecating in the open.
Ten towns have been certified as ‘Open Defecation Free’ with the Ministry of Urban Development beginning the process of third party
verification of ODF claims by towns under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).
The Ministry has got ODF claims of 11 towns independently verified by the Quality Council of India and certified the claims of ten of them as per the Protocol evolved for such certification. The towns certified to have become ODF are; Kagal, Panchgani, Vengurla, Murgud and Panhala in Maharashtra and Siddipet, Shadnaga, Suryapet, Achampet and Huzurnagar in Telangana. The claim of Bhongir in Telanagana will be reassessed.
