Clean India Campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned into a mass movement in Chhattisgarh with villagers voluntarily joining the campaign, said Chhattisgarh Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar.
“In Chhattisgarh the movement is about targeting and changing the old mentality of people rather than just achieving the campaign target. The state government played the role of a motivator and the efforts garnered positive results,” he said while addressing the National workshop on Water and Clean India in New Delhi on the occasion of World Water Day.
Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar presided over the workshop, attended by rural development ministers of other states.
Chandrakar said that the State government will achieve the target of making Chhattisgarh an open defecation free state by October 2, 2018 i.e. a year before the target set by the Centre for open defecation free India.
He added that the Government is directing its efforts towards changing the mindset of of people and it has made laws that support the cleanliness campaign. Having a toilet at home was made mandatory for public representatives contesting panchayati raj institutions election. This has resulted in more villages becoming open defecation free.
On October 2, 2014 just 20 villages in the state were free from open defecation but the present situation shows that more than 12 thousand villages have turned open defecation free. So far, 56 development blocks in five districts including Mungeli, Dhamtari, Rajnandgaon, Durg and Sarguja have become free from open defecation, he said.
Chandrakar informed that 25 collectors and public representatives from five states in south India have visited Chhattisgarh for three days (17-19) in January this year and appreciated the efforts of Chhattisgarh government in cleanliness mission.
He further informed that 2477 gram panchayats in the state were made a part of ‘Nal Jal Yojana’ and over 751 gram panchayats were added to the scheme this year.