WB: Three more districts to be freed of open defecation

After Nadia becoming the first district in the country to be freed of open defecation, West Bengal would soon have three other districts Hooghly, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas falling under the same category.
"Hooghly, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas are fast approaching towards the Open Defecation Free status," West Bengal Panchayats and Rural Development Department Commissioner Dibyendu Sarkar said here today.
State Minister In-Charge Public Health Engineering and Panchayat and Rural Development Subrata Mukherjee, Nadia District Magistrate PB Salim, UNICEF official SN Dave were also present at the programme.
Sarkar, who was speaking at a programme to announce the success of Mission Nirmal Bangla and declaration of Nadia as ODF district, also said, "Not only these three districts, activities for making it ODF in Burdwan and Howrah have stepped up. In fact, there are very good examples of community process in Birbhum, Malda and Coochbehar districts too."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on April 30 would declare Nadia as the ODF district at a programme in Krishnagar.
The occasion would also coincide with declaration of the day (April 30) as the "Nirmal Bangla Diwas".

Stating a 2011 Census which suggested a 48.7 per cent of households in West Bengal having toilets, Sarkar said in the currently around 64.91 per cent families in the state have access to toilets.
"In 2013-14, access to toilets grew to around 6.08 lakh families which rose to 8.47 lakh in 2014-15 (till date). But we still have 53.22 lakh households to cover," Sarkar said.

Incidentally, the state government with the assistance of UNICEF, has targeted around 12 lakh households every year till the entire state earns the ODF status, he said.
"Though we have set a ODF by October 2, 2019, we are trying to complete our mission long before the set date. We have a target of covering 12 lakh families each year (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19) and 5.22 lakh in 2019-2020," he said.