'Punjab aims to become open defecation free by 2017'

The SAD-BJP government aims to equip all houses of Punjab with toilets by October 2017 and make it the first 'open defecation free' state in the country, an official said today.
Announcing this here, Director of Sanitation Department Md Ashfaq said houses in 1,000 villages of the state will have toilets by October 2 this year and work in this direction was on in full-swing.
Ashfaq, also an officer of the toilet construction project, said there were 33 lakh houses in rural areas, out of which 23 lakh have toilet facility.
"Our aim is to construct toilets in the remaining eight lakh houses by October 2017," he said.

Replying to a query on the project's budget, he said construction of one toilet costs around Rs 15,000, of which Rs 6,000 is paid by the state government and the rest by the Centre.