Hyderabad: As many as 73 towns across Telangana state are all set to get “open defecation free” tag next month. The construction of 100 per cent toilets has been achieved in these towns as part of the Swachh Bharat programme.
The government will declare these towns as “open defecation free” (ODF) in the last week of July by conducting a grand programme. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, state ministers, officials and representatives of urban local bodies will be invited for the meeting.
When the NDA government launched Swachh Bharat in, the TS government launched two initiatives — Swachh Hyder-abad and Swachh Telan-gana to meet the objectives of the Centre’s scheme. The state government had set itself a target to achieve ODF tag in all cities and towns by October 2, 2016.
It failed to meet the target though 15 municipalities such as Siddipet and Siricilla represented by ministers T. Harish Rao and K.T. Rama Rao were successful in getting the ODF tag.
Later the deadline was extended to March 31, 2017, but still majority of the municipalities lagged behind. The plan was to construct 83,000 toilets to make all municipalities ODF by March 2017.
Minister for municipal administration and rural development K.T.Rama Rao made special efforts to achieve ODF tag to all municipalities by July this year. He held periodic review meetings with municipal commissioners and officials in all districts and monitored the progress of construction of toilets.
“We have achieved the construction of 100 per cent toilets in all municipalities. The report has been submitted to Centre. The inspection teams will tour the municipalities in July and take up ground-level verification to give ODF status to these cities and towns by July-end. We are hopeful of 73 cities and towns getting ODF tag in July,” Mr Rama Rao said.
Mr Rao said after achieving ODF tag for all municipalities in July, the department’s focus will be to create awareness among people on the need to use toilets and not to defecate in open. He will tour all municipalities to gear up the machinery to achieve ODF tag before Central teams begin inspections.
