Aligarh takes step to stop open defecation

In an initiative to stop open defecation, the Aligarh Municipal Corporation on Thursday offered garlands and sweets on the occasion of Diwali and urged people in the municipality to use mobile toilets instead of defecating in open.

"Diwali is a festival of cleanliness, so keeping this in view, we began this triggering exercise wherein we are urging people to not defecate in the open," Nagar Ayukt Santosh Kumar Sharma told reporters.

The campaign, instead of policing people, focuses on bringing about a behavioural change in them. For this purpose, eight teams are deployed in different areas, informed Sharma.

"We have to inculcate a need for toilets. When we achieve that, people themselves would construct their own toilets," Sharma said.

He also told that the initiative has bore fruit, as over 40 areas in the municipality were marked as areas of open defecation in the initial stages of the campaign, which has now reduced to eight or nine such areas.