India is likely to meet the deadline of October 2, 2019, for becoming an Open Defecation Free (ODF) nation. Launching the Swachchh Survekshan 2020, the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said as many as 4,284 cities in 24 States have been certified Open Defecation-Free (ODF) by now.
“The remaining 150 are expected to be certified by October 2, this year. More than 98 per cent of our toilet construction targets have been met. We are on track to achieve our sanitation targets,” Puri said.
On this occasion, the Swachchh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit, SBM Water PLUS Protocol and Toolkit, Swachchh Nagar - an integrated waste management App and Artificial Intelligence enabled mSBM App were also launched. People will be able to get their household waste picked up by urban municipal bodies. People will have to pay to civic bodies to avail the service through Swachchh Nagar app. They can also track the waste collection vehicle on the app, ensuring accountability of municipal corporations.
A theme song featuring Kangana Ranaut, singers Kailash Kher and Monali Thakur was also launched. The Swachchh Bharat Mission (SBM) is one of the largest cleanliness drives in the world and is also an attempt to initiate behavioural change.
Talking about the Swachchh Nagar app, Ministry’s Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said people will be able to use the app to place a request to have solid waste, construction and demolition waste and wet waste picked up by the local civic body after making a payment.
A water plus protocol, which aims to provide a guideline for cities and towns to ensure no untreated waste water is released into the environment, enabling sustainability of the sanitation value chain, was also launched.
Earlier, Puri said the Swachchh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) was launched with the objective of sustaining the on ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance on cleanliness.