THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kerala for gearing up to become open-defecation free state on November 1. In his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat on Sunday, Mr Modi said that Kerala needs to be appreciated for its efforts in attaining open defecation free (ODF) status. The efforts by students to set up toilets even in the first tribal panchayat Edamalakudy in Idukki district got a special mention in the Prime Minister's address.
The Prime Minister said that Kerala will become open defecation free by November 1, after Sikkim and Himachal. “I would like to appreciate the youth for making Kerala ODF. A group of NCC cadets, NSS volunteers and students of an engineering college set up toilets in Edamalakudy, which is a remote tribal village where people hardly go. One has to travel through forest for a full day to reach there. The students carried construction materials themselves and built the toilets and made it ODF. That’s how Kerala could attain ODF status,” the Prime Minister said.
Kerala will be formally declared as an ODF state on November 1 at a function to be held at Central stadium here at 4 pm. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will make the declaration. Though the state invited the Prime Minister to the event, he could not turn up. Minister for rural development and sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar would be attending the function. The state had implemented the Centre's ODF project within three months by constructing 1.75 lakh toilets.
