'Around 9 cr toilets built in 4 years; 546 districts declared ODF'

Around nine crore toilets have been built across the country since October 2014 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and a total of 546 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

According to a written reply tabled by Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharati in the House, a total of 8,91,21,096 individual household latrines (IHHLs) were constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) from October 2, 2014, to December 7, 2018.

Among the states, the highest number of IHHLs were constructed in Uttar Pradesh, (1,70,73,682), while only 1,600 IHHLs were constructed in Daman and Diu.

In the reply to Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Bidyut Baran Mahato and Chandra Prakash Joshi, Bharati also said that a total of 546 districts were declared ODF across the nation during the last three years and the current financial year.

While 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh were declared ODF, zero districts of Goa and Tripura were declared ODF.

"Rural areas of 25 states/UTs, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand have already been declared ODF.

"Rural areas of remaining 10 states namely Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are likely to become ODF by the end of March 2019," it said.

--IANS

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