Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti has said that the target has been set to make the entire country open defecation free till October 2, 2019.
The Union Government will provide full financial support to the States to achieve this target. She mentioned that a financial assistance of `3,180 crore has already been given to Madhya Pradesh State from 2014 till date.
Finance commission will be urged to fix separate amount for sanitation, so that future activities after declaring the open defecation free should be undertaken. Uma Bharti was addressing the State level Swachhta Puraskar Samaroh at Ravindra Bhavan here on Saturday.
Uma Bharti stated that plastic is the biggest enemy of sanitation. She urged citizens not to throw any kind of plastic material or polythene on roads, this causes loss to cows. Sanitation begins from self inspiration.
Therefore, sarpanchs of gram panchayats, which has become open defecation free, have responsibility to prepare themselves for activities beyond ODF. Union Minister further said that sanitation is a continuous work; one should not wait for Government’s initiative to undertake this. Initiate action with the available resources. She lauded the remarkable progress made by Madhya Pradesh in the sanitation field.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that Madhya Pradesh will become open defecation free State by October 2, 2018. He mentioned that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed sanitation into a public movement. This has brought changes in the mindset of the people. People have accepted the importance of sanitation. He administered pledge to Swachhgrahis (sanitation workers) to inspire people to use toilets and to take resolution to make Madhya Pradesh clean and healthy State.
Uma Bharti and Chouhan inaugurated Gouvardhan Yojana of the Government of India. This scheme has been commenced from the Gram Panchayat Kodsa of Narsinghpur and Gram Panchayat Chiruli of Gwalior.
Secretary of Sanitation and Drinking Water Ministry of the Government of India Parmeshwaran Iyer has informed that 55 crore people of the country used to go for open defecation, before the start of Swachha Bharat Abhiyan in 2014.
Number of these people has come down to 20 crore in just 3 and half year.