6,000 Gujarat villages become open defecation free

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government has claimed that as many as 6,000 villages in the western Indian state have become open defecation free.

State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Jayanti Kavadia claimed at a function on May 22 that all 18,000 villages in the state would achieve the same much before 2019, a target set by the federal government under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (clean Indian campaign).

The minister also said they have built 1.25 million toilets across Gujarat in the past two years. This has helped residents of 6,000 villages to avoid defecating in the open.

Kavadia also said the federal government wants every state in India to have toilets for all its people by 2019, the year when the nation will celebrate 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, The Times of India reported.

“At this pace, I strongly believe that Gujarat would achieve that target much before 2019,” the minister asserted.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel criticized the Congress-led government in the state for not doing enough to address the issue while in power between 1960 and 1995.

“Congress was in power for almost 40 years in Gujarat. However, they did not pay any attention to this problem.”

She said her government provides 12,000 rupees as aid to build a toilet. “I am confident that we will achieve 100 percent target before 2019,” she said.

Patel also launched the ‘Smart Village’ initiative of the state government under which 300 villages will be selected in the first phase.

Under the scheme, village panchayats need to submit an application along with a vision document having road map of converting their village into a ‘smart village’.

“A high level committee would select 300 villages from all the applications. After providing them grants for three years, ‘smart village’ award will be conferred after detailed evaluation, as the village needs to meet several benchmarks, such as 100 per cent ODF, 100 per cent vaccination, wi-fi facility, zero per cent drop out ratio, door-to-door waste collection, etc,” the chief minister said.